


Surrender Up My Heart

by WingsOfTheDreamer



Category: Glee
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Klaine, M/M, Original Character(s), Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-04
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-02-16 04:32:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 26,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2255994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingsOfTheDreamer/pseuds/WingsOfTheDreamer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the summer before Kurt leaves for New York, and Blaine goes to visit Cooper in LA. But then a disease breaks out and spreads across the world quickly. Blaine and Cooper manage to stay alive, but have no idea whether anyone else they know and love are okay. Zombie Apocalypse AU.There will be Character Death. Eventual Klaine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Apocalypse

There was a loud bang and blood spattered up the wall behind Cooper. The mangled, decaying, reeking body fell to the floor, Cooper kicking it with disgust. He wiped the blood on his hands on his already filthy jeans.

He kneeled, taking a look at the gunshot in the things head, pulling a face as the smell grew stronger.

"Your aim was faulty." He said, motioning to the hole, which was slightly to the left of the zombie's head. The man's younger brother scowled, stuffing the handgun into his belt.

"Stop it. We're in the middle of the fucking apocalypse and you're still telling me what I'm doing wrong." Cooper frowns at him and stands up straight.

"Come on Blaine, I-"

"Stop it. Seriously. Next time I'll let the thing kill you. Or turn you. Or whatever. But if you keep judging me, I won't stick around to save your life."

Cooper sighed and didn't get another word in as Blaine stormed off into the blistering heat. He'd be okay for a while. As long as the sun was out. Blaine did this often now. Ever since the outbreak a month ago.

No one had been expecting it. Blaine had just arrived in California to visit Cooper for one weekend, because he wanted to spend the rest of the summer with Kurt before he was to leave to New York. No one's really sure how it started, but it happened fast. And soon enough it was all over the world.

Cooper had broken into a gun shop within the first week, stealing several guns and as many bullets as he could. He's not sure how either of them had survived this long. They had very little food and spent every night barricaded in Cooper's apartment, trying to sleep through the wails of the monsters that trekked the streets.

Blaine had been more emotional than ever, ditching Cooper every chance he got to just walk around the empty city of Los Angeles. He got angrier quicker, and cried a lot. Cooper could hear him crying into his pillow almost every night.

This was killing Blaine without actually killing him.

Cooper knew it had nothing to do with the fact that there was no civilisation anymore. It wasn't because he'd never achieve his lifelong dream. It wasn't because there was a chance they'd die almost every day.

It was because of Kurt. And the fact they had no idea whether he was okay or not.

* * *

"Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaineeee!"

Blaine's head shot up at the sound of Cooper's voice, sand spraying everywhere as he shook it from his curls. He stood from the sand bank, brushing the sand from him, and squinting in the bright sunlight to see his brother grinning at him, standing atop a Mercedes Benz parked wonkily in the street.

"What is it Coop?" he asked tiredly, almost bitter.

Grinning, Cooper jumped off the car and practically skipped over to Blaine, beaming. He looked far too happy for a guy in the middle of an apocalypse.

"We're leaving, Squirt." He said, tossing Blaine a pack of bullets. He caught them, snatching them out of the air with a confused look upon his face, not even thinking about reprimanding Cooper for calling him that.

"We're what?" He asked, bending over to pick up the hand gun and MP5 that had been lying in sand. He nearly dropped them because they had just been sitting there absorbing heat and were sweltering when he touched them. He stuffed the M9 handgun back into his belt, and swung the strap of the MP5 over his back.

"We're leaving. I found this truck loaded with food and the keys are still in the ignition. I say we go back to that gun store that we cleared out of zombies and boarded up in case of an emergency, stock up on ammo and leave tomorrow morning the second the sun rises. We make two stops; one in Albuquerque, and one in Tulsa. We travel through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. My calculations say we'd be there in three days-"

"Cooper!" Blaine cut him off, confused. "Where? And why are we leaving anyway? What's the point?"

"Lima." Cooper stated, and that was all he needed to say to render Blaine speechless.

Blaine nodded mindlessly as Cooper grabbed him and started wheeling him down the straight road, going on and on like it was a road trip and that everything was okay. Blaine wasn't exactly sure how he felt about this. Sure he wanted to see Kurt again, but he didn't want to go there and find out he's… He can't even think of the word.

He could allow himself to hope, but if he was wrong… he might just turn the gun on himself.

* * *

Blaine shifted the heavy bag to his other arm, sweating from head to foot already. He had to be the one who carried their remaining food to the truck that Cooper had said he'd found. Cooper was walking ahead of him, their ammo supply in his own bag.

Blaine grimaced as he stepped over a rotting body, blood smeared across the sidewalk. He glanced at the face and thought he'd recognized it for a second. He stopped, staring down at it, frowning. After a minute or so, he gave up trying to figure it out and just put it down as some celebrity. He then looked back up, his eyes scanning the street and not seeing Cooper anywhere.

He froze over the body, slowly pulling out his M9 and taking it off safe mode.

"Cooper?" He said, his voice echoing in the empty street. He scanned the houses first, looking for any sign of movement, knowing that 'zombies' were lurking just inside. He stepped carefully forwards, moving onto the road and weaving quietly through the cars, his gun loaded and aimed in his eyesight.

There was a crash to his left, causing Blaine to jump and shoot automatically over in the direction.

Then he got a good look at the situation.

Luckily, the shot had missed Cooper's head by a meter, but he clearly wasn't bothered because he was laughing so hard he was bent over the car holding his stomach.

This just angered Blaine more.

"Are you an idiot? That nearly hit you! Why the fuck did you do that!? I could've killed you!"

It took Cooper a minute to calm down, holding his chest a little. "If that had hit me, it would've been worth it."

Blaine scowls, putting his gun back and folding his arms.

"Oh god… I'm sorry, bro. But you should've seen your face."

Blaine just shakes his head and walks away. Cooper follows, still chuckling a little. Blaine simply rolled his eyes, letting Cooper go ahead to lead him to the truck.


	2. Fabray

Blaine was glad that the back of the truck had a cover on it, and even gladder that it was a Chevrolet Silverado. It was in pretty decent shape with exception of the blood smeared across the black metallic paint. They put the food in the back under the cover, and the guns and ammo in the backseat.

Cooper had even been clever enough to find some huge bottles of petrol and placed them in the back too, beside the firearms. That way they wouldn't have to risk their life at a petrol station overridden by zombies.

Cooper got into the driver's side and Blaine in the passenger side. Cooper had smirked and asked him if he wanted to ride shotgun before they'd got in while throwing one of the shotguns at him. Blaine had shaken his head while complaining what a bad pun it was and shoved the shotgun into the back.

When Cooper had started singing as he drove, making up the lyrics as he went, explaining the goings on, Blaine had yelled at him to stop singing and leaned forwards to check the glove department in hopes of finding some decent music.

He screamed when he opened it and a mangled, bloody hand fell out. Cooper swerved the car in shock of Blaine's scream, stopping at the side of the road and looking over, worried. He started laughing then and Blaine scowled at him. He picked up the hand and opened the window, trying to stop himself from throwing up. He threw it out quickly and grimaced as he wiped his hand on his jeans.

Cooper shook his head, smirking as he started to drive again and Blaine returned to the glove department, happy to find a stack of CD's. He took them out and shuffled through them, reading them out to Cooper.

"Okaaay, these people were clearly heading out-"

"Like the amount of food in the back wasn't a giveaway." Blaine ignored him.

"They have Adele, Ed Sheeran, Lady Gaga, Blink 182, Avril Lavigne, Cee Lo Green, Justin Bieber, Beyoncé, Eminem, Rihanna, Paramore, Ke$ha, Bruno Mars, One Direction, Neon Trees," Blaine grimaced when he realized it was the one with  _Animal_ on it, and kept reading through them in hopes of pushing away the memories. He was determined not to cry. "Black Eyed Peas, Maroon 5 and -the closest thing they have to Katy Perry- P!NK!"

Cooper groaned as Blaine inserted the CD.

"Why not something else? Like Ed Sheeran? I like his music!"

"Shush. You're lucky it's not Katy Perry."

Cooper sighed and didn't complain anymore as Blaine turned it up loudly. He knew it was to block out any thoughts of Kurt. He'd registered the hesitation as he read out Neon Trees. Not that he knew the connection. But it was enough.

Blaine mouthed along to the words, but not singing aloud. Cooper frowned, wishing Blaine would sing soon. He missed his voice, and he was saddened by the fact that it was because of Kurt. In a way, Kurt had become Blaine's voice. Without Kurt… he just couldn't sing anymore.

Cooper bit his lip and continued to drive in silence. Because of the state of the world, he could drive as fast as he wanted to, so with both windows open and the breeze blasting them, they weren't as hot as they would be.

They changed the CD whenever the current one ended, afraid of getting bored of the music too quickly.

By the time they got to Arizona, it was still sweltering for them, so they both took of the shirts and put them onto their chairs so their backs wouldn't stick to them with sweat. Blaine even took off his shoes. He stared out of the window, bored, watching the scenery fly by.

They arrived in Albuquerque earlier than expected, so they drove slowly through the city, keeping their eyes open for anyone that might be alive, even though the sun was close to setting.

They eventually gave up as the sun actually started to set and drove straight through the city, parking on the outskirts and shut the windows all the way. They hoped they'd be okay just sitting in here like ducks.

And the sun had just started to dip when there was a blood curdling scream. And they could tell immediately that it was human. Blaine kicked open the car door, pulling out his M9 and taking it off safety and aimed it in front of him just like he did when Cooper had played that prank on him. He aimed towards Albuquerque, narrowing his eyes and scanning it as Cooper came out of the other end of the car.

"Blaine, if whoever that is doesn't show within a minute, she's dead. And we get back in the car immediately and lock the door. I'm not risking either of our lives for some stranger."

Blaine nodded silently and took a step forwards slowly and squinted even more when he saw something move in the distance. He didn't shoot. Not yet.

Cooper clearly wasn't paying attention at all. "Damn. I wish I put my top back on. It's starting to get cold."

Another scream sounded, but it was a word this time. "HELP!"

Blaine frowned, lowering his gun as he saw whoever it was stumble in the distance. He knew that voice, but he couldn't put it to a face… who was it?

Cooper went to yell back, but Blaine spoke before him. "Don't say anything stupid. She's no stranger… I know that voice…" Cooper frowned at him and looked over at the setting sun, starting to get anxious.

The girl finally came into a decent view, her short blonde hair billowing madly as she ran towards them. Blaine's eyes widened as he recognized her and opened the back seat door of the truck and pushed all the firearms and ammunition onto one seat, making room for her. When that was done, he turned back and yelled to her.

"QUINN!"

More movement. But it was Quinn this time, as she stumbled once more at the sound of her name. She was closer now, but apparently not close enough. Blaine saw more movement from the city and knew the zombies were just beginning to come out.

Quinn ran faster, panting and confused. She tripped and Blaine had to run forwards to catch her. And without another word, he dragged her towards the truck and practically threw her into the backseat, slamming the door shut behind her and jumped into the passenger seat as Cooper got in too, and setting the car to drive immediately, speeding away from the outskirts while Blaine looked out the back to make sure they weren't be followed. He kept yelling at Cooper to drive faster while the other insisted he was driving fast enough.

Eventually Blaine scowled and leaned over, pushing the wheel so the car swerved off the road. They eventually got far enough out into nowhere that Blaine told him to stop and collapsed into his seat, closing his eyes.

"…Blaine?"

Blaine jumped, having forgotten why they were driving away so fast and that Quinn Fabray was in the car with them. He turned in his seat and rested his chin the side of it, looking at Quinn sadly. She looked wrecked. Her clothes were clearly slept in and ripped in some places, and she looked starving.

"Hey Fabray."

"…How… You're alive… what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"I… I was in Albuquerque visiting my grandma when it happened. I… I've been alone, Blaine.. I.. what's going on?"

Blaine bit his lip, looking directly in to Quinn's eyes and registering all the fear she feels.

"Something happened. And… I don't really know what's going on myself, Quinn. But… it's basically a zombie apocalypse."

She nodded slowly. Blaine sighs and looks her up and down once more.

"When was the last time you ate, Quinn?" He asked her quietly.

"A week ago." She replied, without any hesitation. Blaine sighed again and got up and out of the truck. He went to the back of it and lifted part of the cover off and started shuffling through their food. He takes out some apples and a few chocolate bars for all three of them, having not being able to cook in a zombie apocalypse in the middle of nowhere.

He heads back and jumps back into the passenger seat. He hands Quinn and Cooper some food. He started by biting into his apple, watching Quinn as she ate quickly and hungrily. She really did look starved…

"…Why did it take you so long to get to us? We were shouting for survivors… You shouldn't have had to run like crazy away from those things."

"… I was locked in one of the apartments higher up." She speaks through a mouthful of her apple, clearly not caring anymore. "There were zombies right outside the door, so I had to climb out the window and climb down the building. By the time I got down the sun was setting and I saw one and I screamed. And then I saw the truck."

Blaine nods slowly, understanding. He continued to watch Quinn as she ate hurriedly. Once she was done, she glanced around her, out the windows. Blaine recognized fear in her eyes.

"Quinn?"

She looked forwards.

"You're safe now."

She smiles.


	3. Dead Or Alive?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Character Death

Blaine woke up before Cooper and Quinn. He looked out of the window at crop field they'd parked in. The crops around them were brown and dead from not being tended to and the ones they had driven through looked thoroughly demolished.

He looked up to see yet another cloudless day, the sun burning bright in the sky blindingly as usual.

He grimaced as he realized he was covered in sweat. He grabbed his shirt from the dashboard and wiped most of it off. He threw it back and glanced over at Cooper, whose face was squished against the window and loud snores emitted from him every other second.

Blaine shook his head and turned to look at Quinn. She was curled up in her seat. Her face was in her knees, hidden from sight. Her blonde hair was greasy and unkempt, falling over her face messily. She was far too skinny and her clothes were far too big. She looked ruined.

Blaine sighed and checked his hand gun was in its place in his belt before unlocking the truck door and getting out. He caught his foot as he stepped out, tripping, and unceremoniously tumbling to the ground. He hit the hard soil with a huff and bumped his head. He groaned and started to pick himself up. Then, just out of the corner of his eye, he saw something move.

He turned his head to fully look beneath the truck and his eyes widened in fear. He remained deadly silent, and slowly reached for his M9, taking it off safety and aiming it steadily.

One shot.

Two.

Three.

Blaine breathed out, relaxing, as the other two woke in shock from the noise.

"BLAINE!?" Cooper yelled when he noticed the truck door was open and his brother wasn't in his seat. Blaine didn't reply because he already heard Cooper scrambling out of the truck and round the vehicle. The older man breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Blaine was with them, but he was still worried about why he was on the floor and why his gun was in his hand.

"What happened?" He asked as Quinn opened her door too, to see what was going on, a worried expression on her face. She was also trying to hide a yawn, but Blaine knew she must've been tired.

Blaine simply pointed beneath the truck, laughing silently when Cooper nearly fell over in his rush to see. He frowned when he saw the dead bodies of the three zombies that had been hiding from the sun by crawling under their truck.

"Ew." He said, pushing himself back up and grabbing Blaine's hand and pulling him to his feet.

"We need to leave now if we plan on getting to Lima by tomorrow." Blaine said, brushing himself off.

"Lima? Why are you going to Lima?" Quinn asked, her eyebrows furrowing and frowning at them. Blaine sighed, realizing they'd never told her about this last night.

"Because of Kurt." Cooper replied bluntly.

" _Really?_  Why?"

"Why do you  _think,_  Quinn?" Blaine asked, hurt leaking into his voice.

"…Blaine, you shouldn't bother. He's probably dead."

Blaine blinked back tears, remaining still and trying to ignore her and not to believe her. He couldn't allow himself do that. He just couldn't.

"Blaine… Why would you torture yourself like that? Either you're going to find his dead, mangled, rotting body and cry for years, or you'll see him as a fucking zombie, or you won't find him at all. Going to Lima is going to make you depressed and hopeless. And if you don't find him, you'll be searching forever. You're  _torturing_  yourself, Blaine… why?"

Blaine was silent for a long time, just looking down at his feet, a tear or two betraying him to fall down his cheek. When he finally spoke, his voice cracked and he looked up at Quinn.

"It's better than spending my life wondering whether or not he's alive."

* * *

"Where are we?" Quinn asked Cooper from the backseat, bored of listening to music in the awkward silence Blaine had created for them. None of them had muttered a word since that morning, and Blaine had been reduced crying silently for a while until his tears dried up.

"Nearly at Amarillo. Why?" He turns the music down, so he can hear her better.

"Because if you haven't noticed, my clothes are filthy, disgusting and too big for me. They're torn and covered in sweat. And so are yours and Blaine's. And these are the only clothes we have."

"Are you serious, Quinn?" Blaine said, turning around in his seat. "We're in the middle of the apocalypse and you're thinking about clothes!?"

"Blaine, calm down." Cooper took one hand off the wheel and clapped it on Blaine's arm comfortingly. "She has a point."

Blaine just looks at him. "Really? Where the hell are we going to find clothes without getting ourselves _killed_? And no we are not going to steal some off random dead people."

"Ew. That's vile, Blaine. Why would you even think that?" Cooper asked, trying not to laugh.

"We'll just find a cheap store." Quinn supplied.

"It'll be filled with zombies." Blaine shot back.

"We'll kill them."

"We don't have time."

"We're ahead of schedule." Cooper cut in, unhelpfully.

"Fine. But if we die, I'm going to kill you Quinn." Blaine muttered, scowling and turning back to the front.

* * *

"That should be the last of them." Cooper said, putting his AK-47 back in place. Quinn smiled, slipping the revolver they'd given her into her loose jeans, and glided past him to the girls section of the small shop. Blaine shook his head at her, putting his MP5 away, checked his M9 was still in place and then blindly grabbed for a bunch of clothes.

"You two can hurry up. I'll wait for five minutes before driving away. It doesn't matter what you wear, no one's going to see you." He then walked out and back to the truck, throwing the clothes he'd grabbed into the back after lifting up the cover.

He sighed and leaned against the side of the truck, looking over his M9, and waiting.

It was two minutes later he heard a scream. Like those fake ones from scary movies.

His eyes widened and he ran back to the little store where Cooper was shouting as well. He rushed inside to see Cooper aiming his Desert Eagle but not shooting. Mainly because Quinn was standing right in front of the zombie, in the guns line of sight.

Blaine steadied his own gun, taking in what had happened. He figured the creature had been hiding behind one of the clothing racks.

He slowly sidestepped, trying to get a decent view of the monster without Quinn being in the way. But his foot caught on one of the dead zombies and he tripped, falling into a clothing rack and caused the live zombie to jump.

Cooper tried to send a warning shot, sending the bullet went whizzing past its head, but the thing took no notice. Blaine scurried to standing position and shot blindly, ignoring the screams emitting from Quinn, and breathed out when he saw the thing fall to the floor.

Then Quinn slowly stepped back, stumbling and falling to the ground herself. Blaine and Cooper both rushed forwards to her, worried.

Blaine stopped just beside her, seeing the problem straight away, his gun slipping from his fingers as they went limp in shock. It clattered on the floor deafeningly. He then fell to his knees beside her.

"No…"

Quinn looked at him, fear still burning in her soft, brown eyes. They pleaded silently. They pleaded for something Blaine knew he couldn't do.

Blood slowly dripped down her neck, the bite bubbling with something unnatural. Inhuman. Her body convulsed slightly, and they all knew what was happened, and why wasn't speaking. Why she couldn't.

"Blaine… We can't let her become one of them… she wouldn't want it…"

There was a slight nod of her head as her body convulsed again, her mouth letting a strangled whimper.

"I c-can't, Coop." Blaine said, his eyes filling with tears as he looked down at her, his hands shaking.

Cooper knelt beside him, resting a hand on Quinn's arm as more strangled sounds emitted from her mouth. "I'll do it." Blaine nods in reply, still looking into Quinn's eyes.

He barely registered Cooper aiming his gun slowly. Blaine reached down and kissed her forehead slightly and moving away before looking back into her eyes.

He then heard the quiet click of the trigger being pulled and then the bang of the gun going and the horrible noise of it as it ripped through her flesh and through her brain, leaving a gaping hole in the middle of her forehead where Blaine had just kissed. He watched her eyes dull in colour as she faded away.

Blaine sobbed silently, closing his eyes, and holding Quinn's body close to him tightly.

Quinn was dead.


	4. Lucy Q Fabray

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Last chapters Character Death in slightly more detail?  
> Warning: Suicidal thoughts

Quinn was just adding the finishing touches to her makeup when she heard a yell.

"Lucy, I'm just nipping to the shop. Is there anything you need, sweetie?"

"No thank you, Grandma." She yelled back, applying a little more mascara.

"Okay. I'll be back soon." The little woman hobbled out the door shutting it behind her. Quinn smiled to herself as she got up and fixed her shirt and grabbing her phone and a book before heading to the living room and taking a seat on the couch, popping her earphones in and pressing play. She opened up her book and began to read.

She got quite a way through the book when her phone beeped. It was a reminder for the party she was going to with a guy she'd met the other day. His name was Lucas, and Quinn was completely smitten with him. He had dark hair but bright, sparkling blue eyes.

And that's when she realized her Grandma still wasn't home. She frowned and pulled her earphones out, when something suddenly caught her attention.

A desperate, blood curdling scream. And it was constant, and there was more than one. The dreadful sound was traveling from the street and through the window.

Worried and confused, she hurried over to the window and stepped out onto the fire escape. Down below, the streets were pandemonium. Quinn's eyes widened in confusion and fear as people ran in random directions, all of the cars abandoned. The screams were horrific and Quinn couldn't pinpoint anything that could've caused this gruesome uproar.

And then she spotted some trip and tumble to the floor. She focused on them for some reason, hoping for a clue on what the hell was going on. He started picking himself up, and from here, he looked oddly like Lucas.

But before he could get up properly, another person fell on top of them. He opened his mouth and let out a heart shattering scream that was cut off as the person seemed to bite into his neck. Quinn yelped and kept staring, sure that she must be dreaming. But there was no way she could deny the blood that was now covering him. The person on top of them continued to rip away at him, more blood spattering the sidewalk.

Quinn stood petrified of what she was witnessing. From where she was, the details were very hazy, especially considering how dark it was, but it was still utterly terrifying.

She rushed back inside, her heartbeat pumping furiously as she slammed the window shut and locking it. She ran through her grandma's apartment and locked the door too. She picked up her phone and started calling everyone she knew. Twice.

No one picked up.

Halfway through her contact list and she started sobbing, her free hand clenching the arm of the chair she was sitting on. The screams never seemed to stop and Quinn was on the verge of a panic attack.

Eventually, she gave up calling, and then passing out from exhaustion just a few minutes later.

She was scared. And alone. Words couldn't even begin to describe just how frightened she was.

Over the course of a week, she had pushed a wardrobe in front of the front door after all the banging on it. The first time she'd heard it that morning, she'd opened it and found several people in the hallway, groaning and bleeding and stinking and she slammed the door shut just as one reach out to grab her. It blocked her from shutting it, but after screaming and slamming her entire frame at the door, the arm was ripped from the owner with a sickening crack.

She'd thrown the bloody limb from the window and never once opened that door again.

She would start sobbing at random times and pace the apartment. She barely slept at night, even when the screams started to ease up, she could still here those _… creatures_  groaning and wreaking havoc in the streets. And on top of that, she'd have gruesome nightmares about the first night. And who could've been Lucas. People ripping each other apart… eating each other. Like crazed cannibals.

What was the world coming to?

It didn't take Quinn very long until she realized she had very little food in the apartment. Once she figured that out, she realized that she couldn't just eat anything and to use it all slowly, but seeing as there wasn't that much to begin with, it still wouldn't last very long.

The electricity, gas and plumbing stopped working within a few days after the outbreak of whatever it was. She found herself barely coping, having breakdowns nearly every day, and losing the will to care about herself and wondering if she should just kill herself so she wouldn't have to face what the world had come to.

She eventually ran out of food, and when she did, she broke down in the kitchen. She passed out there, and she woke, she couldn't find herself caring that she spent the whole night sleeping on the cold floor in the kitchen.

She spent every day for another week searching for more food in the house, hoping that maybe her Grandma had put some in places other than the kitchen, even if it was just something simple like a box of half eaten chocolates.

By the seventh day, Quinn had given up. She had spent the whole day ransacking the apartment hoping to find something to eat. But after only having found a half empty bottle of water, which she downed almost immediately, she just couldn't do it anymore.

She was stood in the kitchen, staring out of the window and holding a sharp, silver knife that glinted in the sunlight. She doesn't know why it took her this long to make the decision to kill herself, but she does know that she wants to do it. She didn't want to be in this wretched nightmare any longer. And stabbing herself and bleeding out seemed like a more peaceful way to go than being eaten alive.

She had just positioned the knife against her chest when she heard a yell. A human yell. Someone was alive and in the streets. At first, Quinn was a bit wary because this had happened before. A few soldiers were out in the streets and were calling out for survivors, and Quinn was just about to start climbing down the fire escape when she someone running towards them. That man was shot down within seconds of the soldiers spotting them. They were killing survivors.

But maybe a gunshot to the head would be quicker than a knife.

With that snap decision she dropped the knife with a clang and ran to the other room and flinging open the window to the fire escape and hopping out onto it.

There was a slight breeze and blew her short hair into her face as she looked down. She saw a Chevrolet Silverado manoeuvring slowly through the street and another yell. I sounded extremely familiar to her but she couldn't pinpoint it. She looked up and noticed that the sun was getting dangerously close to setting so she started clambering down the rickety fire escape.

She started having trouble when she got to the bottom because she couldn't get the damn ladder down. She finally got it down and quickly got down it. Once she was on the ground, she mildly appreciated being on some kind of ground that wasn't carpet or tiles. But Quinn noticed that the sun was about to set and she needed to get out now.

The Chevrolet was nowhere in sight, but she ran in the direction it was headed. She assumed it was going out of the city because the place would be overrun by the time the sun has fully set. She was just reaching the last few buildings, and finally had the truck in sight, when a door she was close to burst open and what looked like a zombie from all those horror movies and shows walked out, groaning.

It had half eaten flesh dangling from every inch of skin that you could see. It was covered in what was no way near fresh blood. The things eyes were blank and whiter than they should be, only the pupil and a hint of the iris were the only visible colour left. Clearly, this… this virus was worse than she originally thought. These people were no longer alive. No longer human.

So Quinn did the natural thing that any defenceless human would do. She screamed until her lungs were out of air, and then she ran.

She ran and kept her eyes locked onto the Chevrolet and saw two guys standing either side of it, holding what looked like guns and screamed again. "HELP!"  _Please for fuck sake help me._  She stumbled a little as she looked down, looking straight back up and running as fast as she possibly could.

She could finally see the two guys better now. And they both looked really familiar, but she wasn't going to focus on that just yet. She wanted to be safe before she tried remembering anyone.

She watched and ran as the shorter of the two men opened the door to their Chevrolet and pushed something aside, and then was utterly shocked when he turned back around and yelled. He yelled her name.

"QUINN!"

The utter shock of the man knowing her name and the fact that she  _knew_  that voice made her stumble again. She picked herself back up shakily and kept running to who she thought was Blaine. Blaine freaking Anderson. Which she found completely and absolutely impossible.

She was panting for breath and found herself really confused now, because there was no way in hell this could be happening. Any of it. Zombies. The apocalypse. Blaine Anderson. It wasn't possible.

While she was trapped inside of her own head, she didn't notice the crack in the road and found herself falling, but suddenly she was wrapped in someone's arms. They were warm and bare and so was their chest and it was the first human contact she'd had in… a month? She couldn't remember, but she wanted relish in this contact, but it was quickly ripped away from her as she shoved roughly into the backseat of the Chevrolet, the door slamming violently behind her.

Dazed and even more confused than before, it took Quinn a few seconds to collect herself and look up at her saviours, but then the truck swerved off the road and sped way over any speed limit into the middle of nowhere, finally coming to a stop, the wheels screeching against the hard soil beneath them.

Quinn breathed heavily, taking a minute to take in what had just happened. She was out of the apartment. She wasn't dead. She was alive and with… Blaine?

"…Blaine?" Her voice was small, but it still made Blaine jump a little. She watched as he turned around and rested his chin on the side of the seat. He looked terrible. His mass of curls was matty and sticking to his head from sweat. He was filthy, covered in dirt and grime and his eyes were the worst part. She was used to seeing him all happy and cheerful. She could see past the pitiful smile he smile he wore, because his eyes showed just how broken he was. Just how tortured and pained. And then he spoke.

"Hey Fabray."

Quinn couldn't help herself. She smiled a little. It felt so good to have someone there that she knew. Someone that was human. But she couldn't deny that was still strongly curious.

"How… You're alive… what are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question." He sounded tired, but she knew he had a point.

"I… I was in Albuquerque visiting my grandma when it happened. I… I've been alone, Blaine.. I.. what's going on?" She felt like she was pleading him, begging for an answer.

He bit his lip and finally looked into Quinn's eyes. She felt like he was pitying her, and she didn't really like that. Sure they were currently in a hell hole, but she wasn't one to be pitied.

"Something happened. And… I don't really know what's going on myself, Quinn. But… it's basically a zombie apocalypse."

Quinn could tell he was telling her everything he knew. What would be the point in lying anyway? She nodded slowly, her brain working overtime. If this really was a zombie apocalypse, what was the point in even finding a way to survive? Hell, even they did find a way, who would want to keep the human race going? Who would want to bring their child into this rotten, decaying world? Even if they found a way to live through this shitty mess, the human race would eventually die out…

She was broken from her thoughts by Blaine speaking again. "When was the last time you ate, Quinn?"

"A week ago." She replied simply, suddenly feeling the painful ache in her stomach that she'd forgotten about since she'd heard them yelling for survivors. Blaine got out of the truck after that, and moving to the back and shuffling around.

The other man in the truck, who'd sat by patiently in silence, shot a quick, comforting smile. She remembered him. Blaine's older brother, Cooper. She didn't remember much other than that he was in some stupid commercial and had an ego bigger than the sun. After all, they had only met while she was just put into that stupid wheel chair, and she was too focused on getting out of it then.

Blaine came and handed her an apple and a chocolate bar, and her mouth literally watered at the sight of food, and she quickly bit into the apple, eating to quickly to let out a moan of pleasure from finally having something to eat.

"…Why did it take you so long to get to us? We were shouting for survivors… You shouldn't have had to run like crazy away from those things."

"… I was locked in one of the apartments higher up." She replied through her mouthful of food, way past caring about manners because  _holy fuck fooood!_ "There were zombies right outside the door, so I had to climb out the window and climb down the building. By the time I got down the sun was setting and I saw one and I screamed. And then I saw the truck."

She wasn't lying exactly; she just wasn't telling them that she was going to kill herself. They didn't need to know that.

She finished her food quickly, before realizing that it was night and dark and she was terrified. What if a…  _zombie_  walked out here and smashed the window and attacked while they were asleep? What if they ended up surrounded?

Quinn kept looking outside through the windows, thinking of a million different possibilities that could happen to them out here. Because she wasn't in the safety of her grandma's apartment. There wasn't a locked wooden door and a ten ton wardrobe filled to the brink with any heavy things she could find guarding them from…  _zombies._

"Quinn?"

She blinks, looking back at Blaine, taking in his look of calm, realizing that he was trying to comfort her.

"You're safe now."

She smiles, grateful for his comfort. She had two perfectly capable men here to protect her. And that's when she let out a few tears. Blaine frowned slightly and got back out of the truck. He got something out of the back and came back and handed it to her. It was a blanket.

"Everything's gonna be okay, Quinn." He said softly. She nodded in reply. "Goodnight."

"..Night."

He shot her one last small smile before turning back around and getting comfortable in his seat, closing his eyes and falling asleep, exhausted. Quinn stayed awake, gazing out of the window at the night sky. At the moon and the stars that were now glistening in the sky. It looked… peaceful. It was odd, to feel this peaceful now... but nice. Definitely nice.

"It's nice to see you can walk." Cooper said softly from his seat, not looking at her but out of his own window. Quinn looked over at him, smiling slightly, slightly wondering why both boys were shirtless.

"I was… in a rough place when we first met."

"More rough than now?" He shot back, finally looking over at her. She sighed and shrugged, bringing her legs up onto the seat, curling up on herself.

It went silent again for a while, and Cooper had thought Quinn had finally fallen asleep when she spoke.

"Thank you."

"For?" He asked, even though he could take a guess.

"Saving my life."

"It's no-"

"I mean it. If you guys hadn't drove past when you did… I'd be dead. I was two seconds away from killing myself." Cooper frowned, turning back around. One look at her face and he knew she wasn't lying. "I was scared, Cooper. And so alone. I didn't know what else to do. No one knew where I was, I was out of food and water and locked in an apartment, I was hardly living anyway. But you saved me."

It went quiet again, and Cooper didn't know what to say, so he just put a comforting hand on Quinn's leg and attempted a smile. It was a long while before either of them spoke again.

"…You know… Quinn's not even my real name. It's my middle name." he raises an eyebrow, curious. "My real name is Lucy. And I have a daughter too."

"… A daughter?"

She nods. "Beth. You remember the guy with Mohawk from our glee club?" he nods. "He's the dad. But we um… I gave her up to someone called Shelby Corcoran. She's nice, I guess. But she is Rachel Berry's biological mother so… who knows?" Cooper cracks a small smile at that, noticing that even Quinn was smiling slightly. "I'd just… I'd give anything to see Beth again."

Cooper smiles and they go silent again. Quinn just starts nodding off as Cooper speaks softly one more time.

"Lucy… I like it."

* * *

Quinn was woken very abruptly next morning by three loud gunshots and Cooper yelling Blaine's name. She found herself still really tired, but she was worried. What was going on with the gunshots and the yelling?

She opened her door, stifling a yawn, shocked to see Blaine lying on the ground. She cocked her head when Blaine just pointed to the underside of the truck, raising her eyebrows when Cooper practically fell to the floor to look under it. He made a face and muttered something before pushing himself back up, and then helping Blaine up.

"We need to leave now if we plan on getting to Lima by tomorrow." Blaine said, brushing himself off. Quinn frowned. Why in the world would they even think about going to Lima? The town would just be filled with disappoint and even more zombies. What was the point?

"Lima? Why are you going to Lima?" She asked, resisting the urge to scowl at him. She narrowed her eyes when Blaine's only reply was a sigh.

"Because of Kurt." Cooper supplied for her, gaging her reaction.

"Really? Why?" She was confused. What was the point in going back just to search for one person? They were most likely to be dead. Just because they had survived thus far, didn't mean any of their other friends did.

"Why do you  _think_ , Quinn?" Blaine asked, looking and sounded hurt.

"…Blaine, you shouldn't bother. He's probably dead."

She felt bad for being so blunt, it was harsh. And she hated the way she was almost bringing Blaine to tears just by stating facts. But she had a point, she knew that. And by the way he looked, he was fighting with himself to try and ignore her words.

"Blaine… Why would you torture yourself like that? Either you're going to find his dead, mangled, rotting body and cry for years, or you'll see him as a fucking zombie, or you won't find him at all. Going to Lima is going to make you depressed and hopeless. And if you don't find him, you'll be searching forever. You're torturing yourself, Blaine… why?"

Deep down, Quinn wished she could have what little hope Blaine clearly still had. She wished that she could believe the people she loved weren't dead. Her mom, Beth, even Puck. But she couldn't allow herself to do so. It was unrealistic to cling onto something like that. Unrealistic and painful.

None of them spoke for a long time after that, and Quinn felt an urge to comfort Blaine as a few tears fell from his eyes, but she was the one who brought those tears on.

"It's better than spending my life wondering whether or not he's alive."

Quinn frowned as she heard the crack in his voice. But she could see Blaine's point of view now. It was reasonable to a certain extent. Because honestly, she couldn't see herself going back to Lima. Not now, not ever. She couldn't face the heartbreak of seeing her loved ones dead. She'd kill herself before even thinking about going back.

* * *

"Where are we?" Quinn asked later that day. They had been driving for a while in silence, the only thing easing the awkwardness was the music Cooper had put on. She had felt really bad because Blaine had spent half of the time they'd been driving crying. He had clearly tried to be quiet, but both Quinn and Cooper could hear him loud and clear.

"Nearly at Amarillo. Why?" Cooper replied, turning the music down a few notches to hear her better.

"Because if you haven't noticed, my clothes are filthy, disgusting and too big for me. They're torn and covered in sweat. And so are yours and Blaine's." Well, what little clothes they were wearing. "And these are the only clothes we have."

"Are you serious, Quinn?" Blaine said, turning around in his seat, looking angry. "We're in the middle of the apocalypse and you're thinking about clothes!?"

Well, his mood changed quickly. Quinn supposed Blaine was angry at her for making him cry for so long. For destroying a bit of what little hope he had.

They debated this for a few minutes and Quinn was satisfied when Blaine finally agreed, not caring about the death threat he'd added onto the end.

When they finally found a small clothing store, Quinn started thinking as Cooper and Blaine made strategies on how to clear the place. She didn't want to go to Lima, and she knew there was no convincing the two of them otherwise, seeing as the slightest hint of Kurt being alive was keeping Blaine sane. She didn't want to live in this hell hole of a planet. Everything had gone to shit anyway. Maybe it was best if she just got out of their way, but the mere thought of being alone again was terrifying to her. More terrifying than the thought of death.

And that's when they handed her a revolver and said to shoot anything that moves.

Could it be that easy? To just put the gun to her head and shoot? To end it all now so she wasn't in anyone's way?

When the boys turned and headed to the shop, she put the end of the gun to her temple, her finger on the trigger. But then her hand started shaking. She couldn't do it. She didn't have the guts to kill herself. Even now.

She dropped her hand and followed the boys as if nothing had happened, forcing herself to look completely unfazed by anything. She silently helped them clear the shop, flinching every time she… it wouldn't class as killing someone, would it? Because they're already dead?

"That should be the last of them." Cooper said, slipping his gun back into place. Quinn sighed silently before plastering on a fake smile and walking over to what she assumed was the girls section of the shop, noticing Blaine shaking his head as he walked past her. She heard scraping as Blaine grabbed a bunch of clothes and muttered something before leaving. Had she made him angry?

Quinn started to think that she was really just getting in their way. She was slowing them down, and making Blaine more depressed than he already is. She was pathetic, dragging them down just because she couldn't be as strong as them.

She let out a quiet sob, unaware that Cooper was still there.

"..Quinn? What's wrong?" He asked, looking over at her with a frown. She froze, her hand clenching onto a coat hanger.

"I… I'm d-dragging you down… I.. I don't even w-want to be al-alive, Coo-" And then she screamed.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw something move and had turned to look, and realized that she was just inches away from a live zombie. The thing had a gunshot wound in its neck, probably Quinn's faulty aim. She started breathing heavily, finding herself paralyzed to the spot and unable to back away.

"Quinn…" It was Cooper. She knew he was standing a few feet away, most likely with his gun loaded and aimed. She knew he could just run around and get a clear aim right now instead of just standing there. It was because of what she said; he was at a loss for what to do.

And they both heard Blaine rushing in, and Cooper knew that Blaine would find it odd if he didn't do anything, so he shot randomly a few inches away from Quinn at the same time as Blaine tripped over one of the bodies.

But that made things worse as the zombie leapt at Quinn, biting her fiercely in the neck. She screamed because the pain was so intense and was like nothing she'd ever felt before. A million times worse than her crash. And it kept going, biting and chewing and ripping. Her screams became a garbled mess, and she started choking on she assumed must be her own blood.

Then she heard a gunshot amidst her own screaming. The zombie fell away and Quinn took a step back, unable to breathe and she could feel the blood gushing from her neck. She toppled to the ground, clutching her wounded neck, tears springing back to her eyes.

Everything became hazy from there. She sees Blaine's outline and tries to beg him to make the pain stop, but nothing comes out of her mouth. She heard a buzzing noise and tried to speak again, and she started to convulse and it hurt so much. It felt like blades slashing all of her insides apart, tearing and incinerating her entire being.

But there was something warm, soft and gentle pressing against her forehead; the only speck of light in the darkness that is her pain. It was almost like a kiss. And then more pain, right where that soft touch had been, and everything went black.


	5. Booze

Blaine hated this. He hated it a lot.

They'd driven out of Amarillo and found a nice field. The grass in it was green, and not a single lace of blood was found upon it, as far as the Anderson brothers could see. They had spent most of the rest of day digging a hole in the ground with a shovel they'd stolen from a gardening shop.

Well, Blaine had. Cooper had spent the time making a makeshift gravestone out of wood.

Three hours before sunset was due, it was ready. They slowly lowered her body into the grave, Blaine trying his hardest to keep on his brave face; trying not cry.

They filled it in silently and neatly, and when Cooper stuck the gravestone/wood into the ground, Blaine noticed he'd painted on ' _Here Lies_ _ **Lucy Quinn Fabray**_ _. Daughter, Friend, Mother. 1994 – 2012._ '. Blaine had seen him take some waterproof paint from a store, but hadn't questioned him on it. Now when he saw this he understood.

And this was when he broke down and cried, tears falling from his eyes hurriedly,

Cooper hugged him tightly after placing the bouquet of Marigolds they'd found in a flower shop. They'd been the only set that hadn't wilted from neglect.

He couldn't say anything. He couldn't think of anything to say. And it hurt that Quinn couldn't have a proper burial. A proper funeral. One that showed how amazing she was. One that someone who wasn't Blaine could've done for her.

They'd slept in the truck beside the grave that night, knowing the place was safe and deserted.

They'd started driving again the next morning after a quick glance at the grave again. One day behind schedule. But not that either of them cared at this point.

They drove in silence until Cooper put the Ed Sheeran CD in. Blaine actually listened and realized he liked a lot of the guy's music.

They made it to Tulsa without any more unnecessary stops, and slept on the outskirts again. The next day they headed to Lima as their final stop. Blaine's mind was suddenly wiped of Quinn's death, even if he still felt sad about it. But he was filled a sudden anticipation and maybe a little dread.

He was afraid.

He'd convinced Cooper to stay just outside of Lima for the night, even though it pained him to do so. But it was nearing dark and he didn't want to risk anything. Not his life, or Coopers, or anyone else that might be in Lima. He wasn't risking anything.

He wasn't risking the possibility that Kurt might be there.

* * *

When he woke up, Blaine was literally shaking with anticipation, which was now clouding out the fear and dread from his mind.

He forced Cooper awake and practically shoved an orange down his throat before they finally drove into Lima.

They had their windows rolled down and their music off. Their eyes scanned everywhere, not missing even a tiny speck of dust, driving incredibly slowly. Blaine noticed they were still quite a few miles from Kurt's house. The place they were headed first. Because it was just the logical thing to do.

Blaine grimaced as they drove passed Scandals.

And then floods of questions he'd never dreamed of thinking about before suddenly entered his mind. Finally thinking about people who weren't Kurt.

Was Sebastian alive? Nick? Jeff? Wes? David? Thad? Burt? Carole? Finn? Rachel? Tina? Mike? Mercedes? Puck? Sam? Santana? Brittany? Artie? Rory? Sugar? Mr Schuester? Miss Pillsbury? Coach Sylvester? The creepy swimming coach?

His thoughts were interrupted by a gunshot, and then a yell. The voice was very distinguished, coming from the closest building.

Blaine and Cooper shared a look before jumping before jumping out of the truck, the guns loaded and aimed.

In the back of his mind, Blaine was annoyed that it had to be outside of Scandals.

They walked closer to the club, until they were directly in front of the door. They wouldn't usually risk going into buildings during the day unless it was important, due to the zombies hiding in them. Blaine guessed it was important once Cooper kicked the door open.

As they walked in, they saw dead zombies, rotting flesh and reeking of death, scattered everywhere. There wasn't a live one in sight. Someone was behind the bar, his back to them. He had some sort of sniper gun on his back, and two SKORPION hand guns lay forgotten on the bar.

The guy was mumbling to himself as he fumbled with bottles of alcohol. Blaine stepped closer quietly, listening.

"-try to steal the alcohol now mother fuckers! I swear you damn gay zombies are worse than the straight ones-"

Blaine groaned, making his presence known, and dropped his aim as the teenager whipped around in shock.

"Out of all the people in Lima, we had to find you?"

The teen was shocked at first, but then he raised an eyebrow at Blaine's comment and his expression morphed into a familiar sneer.

"It's a pleasure to see you again, too, Anderson."

Blaine rolled his eyes and folded his arms.

"Do you know every living person we find, Blaine?" Cooper asked, his own aim dropping as he stepped over a body, looking confused.

"Apparently so."

"You met someone alive!? Who?!" Sebastian said, his eyes widening, in what Blaine thought might be hope.

"None of your business, Sebastian. And why are you getting alcohol? What's the point?"

"What else is there to do during a zombie apocalypse?" Blaine scowled, but said nothing, even when Cooper went over to the bar, further down from Sebastian, to find some alcohol himself.

"What're you doing in Lima, Blaine? I heard you were in California. What happened? You miss me?"

"I happen to be holding a loaded gun, Sebastian. Don't push your luck."

Sebastian shrugged, not bothered, and waiting for an answer.

"I'm not sure how you found out I was in Cali, but I don't care. And isn't it obvious why I came back?"

"Are you still holding out for lady face?"

"Again, don't push your luck."

Sebastian shrugged again, getting some bottles of alcohol and putting his SKORPIONS back in their holders before vaulting over the bar and stepping towards Blaine.

"Here's how it's going to go down, my adorable piece of walking sex." Blaine scowled at the name. "We're going to get in whatever vehicle you came here in. And I'm going to drive me, you and McHollywood to a safe place. The place I've been staying at for the last half of a month."

"How can I trust you?"

"I survived in this shit hole, haven't I?"

Blaine narrows his eyes but sighs.

"Now come on, Stud. Let's go get wasted."

Sebastian walked passed Blaine calmly. Blaine sighed, having no interest in getting drunk at all, let alone with Sebastian. But he was the only lead they had to Kurt right now. Blaine frowned and turned to follow him, mumbling about how much of an asshole he was, as Cooper followed, some bottles of his own in his hands.


	6. Hold Me In Your Arms

"Here." Sebastian said, producing a pack of mints from his pocket and handing them to Blaine, who looked at them, confused.

"Why are you giving me mints?" He asked, frowning as Cooper leant forwards from the back and took one without consent, and popping it into his mouth with a grin.

"When was the last time you brushed your teeth?" Sebastian replied, his eyes on the road as he drove.

"This morning." Sebastian raised an eyebrow and shot him a look. "I did! We do have toothbrushes and toothpaste! And we use bottles of water!"

Sebastian shrugged. "You should still take one. Freshen your breath. They taste nice too."

Blaine frowned but took one anyway; scowling because it did taste nice and he didn't want to admit it.

"Where are you even taking us?" He asked, sighing.

"Hush, tiny hobbit, just a few more meters." Sebastian smirks and goes through an open gate to an expensive house. It looked familiar and Sebastian jumped out of the truck the second he parked. Blaine scowled as he and Cooper got out to follow him. Blaine hated that of all the people they could have find in Lima, Ohio, it had to be Sebastian Smythe.

They followed Sebastian to the door of the house, which, now Blaine looked at it properly (still trying to decide why it was familiar), was larger than most, at least three stories high. He sighed as Sebastian knocked, looking around at the long grass around the building.

Then a voice came through the door, even more familiar than the house itself.

"Who is it?"

"Who do you think it is, you stupid fucktard?" Sebastian replied. "Just open the damn door."

There was a fumbling on the other side, while Blaine tried to figure out whose voice it was. But then more voice. Only one other voice.

"Jesus, Finn. Anyone would think you were five. Just leave the twat out there. He isn't supposed to be back yet, anyway."

Blaine stood, frozen in place from shock, his jaw hanging open. He knew who it was, but It had struck Blaine to the spot and he couldn't find the will to move, even though everything in his body was screaming at him to yell.

"Blaine…?" Cooper whispered. "Isn't that…?"

It was Cooper's voice that made him spring into action.

He pushed past Sebastian forcefully, knocking him aside and threw himself against the door, as if it would make it disappear. Break the barrier between them.

"Fuck off, Sebastian!"

Then Blaine found his voice.

"Kurt!"

Everything seemed to go deadly silent for a second, before the fumbling with the locks started again. It seemed to take forever…

The door flew open and Blaine took one quick look, making sure it was really him before throwing himself into Kurt's arms.

He felt Kurt's arms, so strong and secure, wrap around him in return, gripping tightly, as if Blaine would disappear if he let go. Blaine felt relief surge through him and he started to sob into his shoulder, muttering ' _You're Alive'_  over and over and over again. And he was well aware that Kurt was doing the same thing.

He breathed Kurt in, finally taking in the scent he remembered so well and missed so much. The sweet honeysuckle and vanilla, even though it was almost masked by sweat. It was still there.

He didn't know how long they were standing there for, but when he finally pulled out of the hug, they were alone and the door was shut and locked up again.

Blaine cupped Kurt's face in both hands, letting his eyes flick from one feature to another, making sure it was really him. Tear stains and all.

"You're… You're really here." Blaine whispered, his voice cracking as he looked into Kurt's beautiful blue-green eyes.

"I really am. And so are y-you."

Kurt blinked and let another tear roll down his already streaked face. Blaine wiped it away with his thumb, almost by habit.

"I… I was so scared, so worried."

Kurt leans into his palm, his eyes sparkling with unshed tears.

Blaine was lost for words. And as he internally searched for them, he saw the bright blue eyes flicker to lower on his face before back to his eyes.

That's when Blaine realized he didn't need words. He just needed Kurt.

He leaned forwards and caught Kurt's lips in to a passionate kiss.

Kurt whimpered as they searched each other's mouths with their tongues. Something that was once familiar to them both. They had missed this. They needed this familiar touch that had been stolen from them when they needed it most. The thought of which had been the only thing that could keep them sane in this zombie apocalypse. And it had finally been given back.

Eager to taste more of him, Blaine pushed into the kiss more, moving them both until Kurt was pinned against a wall. Blaine against him and pressed into the kiss harder.

They kissed until their lips were sore and red, pulling away panting heavily, but with irremovable smiles.

And then they were laughing. Still pinned against the wall, just laughing. Laughing with relief. Because they needed to. Because they were both alive. And they both finally had the other back.

"I love you so much." Blaine whispered.

"I love you, too." Kurt whispered back, his grin wide and he kissed Blaine again.

* * *

 

Sugar's house.

Blaine should have known. He'd been here plenty of times before the outbreak. But he wasn't expecting the force of her strength slammed against him as he and Kurt went into the next room, only to be released from her grip seconds later as she started to babble on about something.

Kurt watched his baffled expression and laughed. They were holding hands, refusing to let go. Within seconds, Blaine was also being hugged by a small brunette. Her grip was tighter than Sugar's, and when she pulled away, she looked up at Blaine with big, brown eyes.

Rachel.

Blaine also found in the next few minutes that Puck, Santana and Finn were here too. Puck came in, growing a slightly normal head of hair, holding a child with blonde hair, around the age of two years old. Blaine asked who it was.

"Beth. Mine and Quinn's child. I managed to find Shelby's house to save her, but never got to save Shelby. Santana's been helping me with her. But the second we're all ready to move on, I'm going to Albuquerque to find Quinn. I know she was there visiting her grandmother. And now we know you survived, there's a chance that she did to."

Blaine froze, his mouth open, unable to form the words. He couldn't help the pang of despair that hit him hard in the chest at those words. Quinn… How in the world was he supposed to explain? He caught eyes with Cooper in the corner before dropping Kurt's hand and stepping forwards, taking a deep breath and looking Puck in the eyes. He had to do this, or Puck would be clinging onto false hope.

"She's dead."

"What?" Puck looked up, confused.

Blaine spoke slowly, explaining everything that happened since they left California, trying hard not to look at everyone as they started to cry as they listened, with the exceptions of Coop, Sebastian and Finn.

"And we buried her just outside of Amarillo. In a nice field where it's safe. Where she won't be harmed. Where she can rest in peace."

"I…" Puck wiped his eyes and silently handed Beth to Santana and then walked from the room, his shoulders shaking. They heard a door shut seconds later.

The room was deadly silent, and Blaine wasn't sure how long he stood there before Kurt retook his hand and pulled him from the room, taking him up a floor. He took him to a small room with a double bed that took up most of the space. Kurt pulled him to lay down on it, still keeping their hands clasped as he lay opposite him, staring into his eyes.

He needed this time. He just wanted to be alone with Kurt, while he let the news about Quinn sink in with everyone else. Because while he was terribly distraught about Quinn, he was happy because he'd found Kurt.

"That was really sweet. What you did for Quinn." Kurt whispered, breaking the silence.

"I'm sure she would've done the same had it the situation been reversed." He murmured, using his free hand to brush a strand of hair from Kurt's face. "When she found out we were coming here, she tried to convince me to stop. She told me you wouldn't be alive."

"I am, Blaine. I'm here." Blaine was silent for a second. He bit his lip, nervous.

"How? What happened?"

Kurt told him everything. Almost everything.

He explained how Sugar defended herself with only a carving knife and protected her house. How Puck had found a gun store a few towns over and raided the place before finding Shelby and Beth, and then fearlessly fought for his daughter's life. How Santana had tried everything to protect a poor, confused Brittany in a futile attempt to save her. How Finn had slaughtered zombies without breaking a sweat to rescue Rachel. How Sebastian had found them and swooped in with a car loaded with food when they needed it most.

"W-what about you? …Where's your dad?"

Blaine had been afraid to ask, but he knew that if he didn't, Kurt would never tell.

Kurt finally broke eye contact, looking down as a few tears fell.

"It… it was a w-week after the outbreak…"

_**((Cue Flashback))** _

" _Please don't." Kurt whispered, shaking in his seat beside the window, Rachel by his side and Finn next to her. It was a little squashed in the backseat of the car with the three of them._

" _Kurt, honey, I have to." Carole spoke softly, looking at him with calm eyes. "We need the food."_

_Finn twizzled the gun Puck had given him in his hand._

" _But those…_ things _are in there! You'll die!"_

" _Kurt." Burt frowned from the driver's seat. "Carole will be fine; me and Finn will be just outside in case anything goes wrong."_

" _No, dad! We have enough food for now! Puck will come back with more! We can last until then! I'm not losing you! Either of you!"_

_Carole and Burt shared a look._

" _Kurt. You aren't losing anyone-"_

" _I already have! I'm not losing anyone else!"_

_Burt looked defeated._

" _You know there's a chance that Blaine is still alive-"_

" _I can't let myself hope! California was one of the first places to be hit, dad! I'd be a fool to waste my life hoping!"_

" _Kurt-"_

" _Stop it!"_

_Kurt was crying. Bringing Blaine into this had been a bad idea. It had opened the barely healed wound. He lied when he said he didn't hope, but that didn't mean it didn't feel like Blaine was dead._

_Rachel turned to hug him during the silence. He closed his eyes and sobbed loudly into her shoulder._

_While this happened, Carole sneaked out of the car quietly and goes over to the shop._

_It took a minute for Kurt to realize she was gone._

_It took him ten seconds to get out of the car._

_It took five for Burt and Finn to follow._

_The noises distracted Carole long enough for her to turn around, having just got inside and looks through the floor to ceiling windows._

_And that's when she got attacked._

_Burt yelled and ran after her, fiddling to get his gun out._

_Kurt watched, mortified, as his dad killed the monster that had bit Carole, then fall to his knees beside her. His dad hadn't seen the others, and Kurt screamed out his name to warn him. Too late. Burt became overwhelmed as the monsters attacked him too, ripping him apart, tearing the flesh off him, biting him and clawing at him while he screamed in pain beside his wife._

_Kurt made to run after him, but Finn held him back. Kurt became hysterical, kicking, screaming, sobbing and trying his hardest to pull away from Finn's grip._

_Finn finally let go after a long time, only to let him fall to the floor, still sobbing loudly, yelling out and punching the ground consistently._

_**((End Flashback))** _

Kurt was crying as Blaine looked at him, shocked. He made to let go of Kurt's hand to hug him, but his fingers brushed over something.

He looked between them, running a finger over Kurt's bruised knuckle. Painful looking scabs were covering most it, showing the marks of where he'd hit the ground particularly hard.

This just seemed to make the story more real.

Blaine shifted before wrapping Kurt up tightly in his arms, starting to murmur comforting words to him, kissing his hair frequently.

It was then that Blaine finally found his voice. His singing voice. And he's not sure why he started singing. Or where the song came from. It just felt right in that moment, whispering it slowly into Kurt's ear.

_Settle down with me_

_Cover me up_

_Cuddle me in_

_Lie down with me_

_Hold me in your arms_

Kurt began to calm down, listening intently to Blaine.

_Your heart's against my chest_

_Lips pressed to my neck_

_I've fallen for your eyes_

_But they don't know me yet_

_And the feeling I forget_

_I'm in love now_

_Kiss me like you wanna be loved_

_Wanna be loved_

_Wanna be loved_

_This feels like I've fallen in love_

_Fallen in love_

_Fallen in love_

Kurt shifted, looking up at Blaine with his bright blue eyes, searching his face.

_Settle down with me_

_And I'll be your safety_

Kurt blinked away the last of his tears, and Blaine smiled a little. his lips twitched upwards, a smile threatening to appear.

_Yeah I've been feeling everything_

_From hate to love_

_From love to lust_

_From lust to truth_

_I guess that's how I know you_

_So hold you close_

_To help you give it up_

Blaine shifted to look Kurt in the eyes while he sung the last words.

_So kiss me like you wanna be loved_

_Wanna be loved_

_Wanna be loved_

_This feels like I've fallen in love_

_Fallen in love_

_Fallen in love_

A smile now graced Kurt's lips when Blaine finished.

"I love you. I love you so much, Blaine."


	7. Reserve

Shortly after Blaine had finished singing, Kurt had gotten hungry and it was nearing lunch time anyway, so they both headed back downstairs. The front door was wide open and Finn, Cooper and Santana were bringing in Blaine and Cooper's supplies from the truck. Sebastian was in the living room looking agitated while Rachel played with Beth on the floor, her eyes bloodshot from crying.

Kurt kisses Blaine before going to get them some food and Blaine sat himself besides Rachel and let her lean into him and place her head on his shoulder as Beth played with a teddy bear. She was quite adorable playing with her various toys, until she looked around them with a confused look, before turning to Rachel.

"Ray… where Dada?"

"Urm… He's sleeping sweetie." She nods before clambering into her lap.

"Ray? …who Sebby bing wid him? He has funny 'air… an the tall won is pwetty." Blaine smiles at her and Rachel giggles slightly too.

"Well, this is Blaine, and he's Kurt's boyfriend. His big brother is Cooper."

"Hi, Beth." Blaine smiled. The little toddler blushed before running away and over to Sebastian, climbing onto him and hiding her face into his chest. Sebastian seemed shocked as this happened, but patted her back and smiled a little, before checking his watch.

"Seb, he'll be back. He always comes back."

"He said he'll be back for twelve Rachel, it's twenty minutes past. He has a watch."

Blaine frowned, confused at the exchange, and examined Sebastian's face closer. He was worried.

"Who'll be back?"

"Jasper." Sebastian answered simply, busying his hands by playing with Beth's hair. He noticed Blaine's confused face before muttering. "He's my brother."

Blaine was shocked. Sebastian had not once, in the year they'd known each other, mentioned he had a brother. And for some reason, it intrigued him. What was his brother like? Was he a man-whore like Sebastian? Or was he nice guy?

Just then, someone came into the living room that Blaine had never seen before, but he bore a striking resemblance to Sebastian. Jasper. Blaine's also pretty sure Rachel muttered ' _Speak of the devil'._

They looked almost identical except Jasper was smaller, younger, his hair was messier and not styled, his eyes were bluer and brighter, and he was about fourteen or fifteen.

"Before you start yelling, Seb, I ransacked a few houses for supplies. I found food, bottled water, batteries, and a bunch of other simple everyday things. And plus, you told me to meet you at Scandals. I went there, and when you weren't there, I came straight back here."

Sebastian frowned and shifted where Beth was sitting on his lap, but he didn't look angry. He actually looked… relieved. Then Jasper saw Blaine.

"…Who's the newbie?"

"I'm Blaine. Kurt's boyfriend." Blaine replied, standing up and offering Jasper his hand to shake. Jasper just glanced at it.

"Oh… The guy Seb has the hots for? I'm surprised you're alive, California was one of the first to be hit."

"I guess me and my brother got lucky."

Jasper smiled and finally shook Blaine's hand before muttering about going to help bring in the supplies and leaving the room again. Once he was gone, Sebastian sighed and placed Beth back on the floor, where she pouted for a second before going to play with her toys again.

Blaine looked at Sebastian closely, thinking that maybe he had misjudged him before. Sebastian wasn't all about who his next one night stand was, or when his next quick blowjob was. He cared about someone. He cared about his brother. A lot. And by the way he was watching Beth, like he was making sure she didn't run off, or to make sure she was okay...

Sebastian Smythe has a heart.

Blaine was about to say something when Kurt walked in, holding a plate of sandwich's all cut in half. There weren't many, but Kurt muttered something about rationing to make the food last longer, which made sense. Kurt put the plate onto the floor, where Sebastian slipped down silently to join them. The three teens took one each and the second Beth saw the food she came rushing over and adorably asked Kurt for one, and was beaming when he told her to help herself.

Blaine leaned heavily into Kurt as he ate his sandwich slowly, and Kurt wrapped an arm around him, eager to stay close to him. Blaine felt Kurt's lips kiss his head softly and he smiled, eating the rest of his sandwich before cuddling up to Kurt properly. He was still struggling to believe Kurt was actually alive, and here, in his arms. It felt like a bright light in the deepest pits in hell, which is probably the most accurate way to describe it.

"I love you." He muttered against him, smiling when Kurt hugged him tighter and murmured an 'I love you too' back. He just wanted to stay like this forever. Safe. In Kurt's arms, and completely safe. Blaine wanted this hell to be over so everyone would be safe. So people he knew and loved wouldn't be dead. He wanted life to be exactly the way it was, when he was surrounded by friends and there wasn't the constant fear of the creatures that lurked the streets every night, searching for food.  _They_ were food.

That's when Puck came back in, his eyes red and bloodshot, but the thing that had shocked the four in the living room was that he'd shaved his head to his usual Mohawk. They knew what this meant. It meant that now he knew Quinn was dead, there was nothing he could hold onto for Beth, so he was reverting back to his badass ways. He was going to act like he wasn't hurting. Like Quinn's death wasn't a huge deal to him.

So when he came and picked Beth up, who was now fascinated with her daddy's new haircut, they didn't say anything. They quietly watched as he took a sandwich from the plate and a teddy for Beth before sitting on the couch with Beth on his lap.

It was silent from then on, Kurt and Blaine just cuddled up with Rachel eating far too slowly besides them, and Sebastian just looking bored where he sat. Beth talked to herself and her teddy, occasionally kissing it loudly and giggling.

It was a while before everyone else finally came in, and they were also stunned into silence by Puck. Of course they were used to it, but they just hadn't been expecting him to shave it just because of Quinn.

Jasper was the one who broke the silence as he plopped down besides Sebastian.

"What's with the stupid new hairdo, Puckerman?"


	8. Not Fragile

"Shut it, Smythe jr." Puck said, glaring slightly in Jasper's direction, before being distracted by Beth asking him a question quietly.

"Oooh, touchy." Jasper replied as he sat down on the arm of Sebastian's chair.

"Leave it, Jasper. This is actually his usual style." Rachel said, picking at her sandwich. Jasper frowned, sighing and flopped himself into the actual chair itself, looking the whole part of a typical badass teenager. He smirked and made sure to whack Sebastian on the head while he did it, earning himself a scowl.

Then Cooper, Finn, Santana and Sugar came in, all sitting down in one place or another. Cooper dropped himself by Kurt and Blaine and reached straight for the food. Blaine smiled at him and kept his arms around Kurt, not planning on letting go anytime soon. He breathed Kurt in slowly, revelling in his presence. They were both alive. They were both safe. And now they finally had each other. The world may be in a never ending storm around them, but they say it's the calmest… the safest at the heart of it. And that's where they were. As long as they had each other, they could deal with everything that hell threw at them.

Blaine was distracted from his thoughts by Finn's voice, and he looked away from Kurt's sparkling, calm, blue eyes to listen.

"We're running out of supplies."

Everyone just stared blankly at him until, "But what about all the stuff me and Blaine brought with us?"

"All that food is great and all, but it's going to run out eventually. We're nearly out of candles and matches, and we're also low on batteries for flashlights. We need to scout around for everything, soon. It's better to do it while we're comfortable than while we're desperate."

The silence was the groups way of agreeing, because there was no other way,

"So I say we have a rota-"

"Are you even aware of what that means?"

"Shut up, Santana! Yeah, so we have a rota and send a few people out each day. I know Sebastian and Jasper are always out sooo… whatever. I know it's a pain to be cooped up all the time, so I say we just decide each morning and see where it goes."

"I'll go. Like tomorrow or something." Blaine offered.

"Me too!" Kurt said, shifting impossibly closer to him. Blaine felt a strong surge of protectiveness flow through him. He didn't want Kurt out there; in danger.

"No. I don't want you to get hurt-"

"Don't, Blaine." Kurt spoke strongly, clearly not planning on backing down. "I don't want  _you_  to get hurt either! I'm not letting you out of my sight Blaine. Not again."

Blaine sighed. He couldn't fight with that. Because as much as he wanted to keep Kurt under lock and key where it was safe while he went scouting, he wanted to keep Kurt by his side, where he can see him, because he'll be able to protect him, make sure nothing bad happens to him…

So he let the matter drop and just nuzzled closer to him, breathing him in slowly, and whispering, "I'll never leave you again."

* * *

Blaine scowled at Rachel through the mirror. She was holding a pair a scissors, about to cut his hair and had just made a remark about cutting it all off. She laughed before starting to cut his hair. Blaine sighed, just wanting to get this over and done with. The scouting group should have left already, but before Kurt had come down the stairs, Rachel had dragged Blaine from the hall, demanding that his almost afro had to go. To be honest, Blaine had forgotten just how quickly his hair grows, and he did look like a homeless person. At least he had shaved that morning…

Just as Rachel was finished up, Kurt walked in wearing black skin tight jeans and a black shirt under a leather jacket. He had what looked like a hunting knife strapped to his thigh and a hand gun tucked into his belt, as well as an empty backpack over his shoulder for any supplies they picked up. He looked… hot.

Blaine's jaw dropped as Rachel moved to the side of the room where Sugar had been standing, and if either of the boys had been remotely listening, they'd have hear their whispered conversation.

" _I don't understand why Kurt is still so into fashion. It's pointless!"_

" _You don't get it, Berry."_

" _What's to get?"_

" _This isn't for enjoyment or fashion or style or whatever. Get some damn eyes!"_

" _Sugar-"_

" _He's doing it for Blaine! Just look at his face and tell me that boy didn't just get some non-innocent thoughts."_

" _Oh…"_

Kurt smirked at Blaine and pushed his bangs from his eyes. "You ready?"

Blaine just nodded dumbly, shifting a little where he sat. Kurt bites his lip and holds out his hand, which Blaine instinctively moves towards, taking it and squeezing tightly. And then he's moving in and kissing him fiercely, forgetting about the girls for just that one, hot, searing moment. It felt the same as the kisses had last night while they were drifting off to sleep beside each for the first time in a long while. Warm, familiar, tender, passionate and so,  _so_  intimate. It felt right.

Kurt pulled away, leaving Blaine trying to chase his lips with his own, pouting a little, wanting more. Kurt laughed slightly.

"Come on, Blaine. We can kiss some more later."

* * *

Blaine and Kurt moved to scout upstairs in the house they'd broken into, while Santana and Finn remained searching downstairs. Blaine focused on Kurt's every move, watching him, watching everything around him. Making sure  _he_  was safe. Which ended up being pretty stupid.

Kurt turned to Blaine, a small smile playing on his lips, but his face quickly contorted into that which resembled fear, pulling his knife from its strap and swinging it towards Blaine, very narrowly missing his head and hitting something behind him. Kurt pushed past him, pulling his knife back and stabbing the monster again and again, blood shooting from the wound, just to make sure it was dead, before letting the thing fall to the floor, leaving both boys breathing heavily.

"Kurt…"

Kurt turned to Blaine. "Watch your back, Blaine. I love you, and I know you love me. But I'm not fragile. I can look after myself, you know?"

Blaine just nodded, understanding.

"Stay focused."

They went back downstairs after clearing all the rooms and searching every nook and cranny. They'd found a few packs of batteries, a torch, and Kurt ransacked the bathroom for stuff like toilet paper, toothpaste, soap and bunch of other not that essential stuff, but if it's there, they'll take it.

Puck and Finn had found some more batteries themselves, a bunch of canned foods and bags of sweets and chips, and a first aid kit. They'd even found an epipen, which Puck demanded would be cool because it could come in handy. Kurt had found it stupid and ignored his explanation about  _Left 4 Dead_  and adrenaline.

They'd found the basics, and decided to move on to another house, keeping themselves busy. Blaine had no more trouble with zombies creeping up on him. He could easily watch out for both Kurt and himself, without either of them getting into any  _real_  danger.

They went through a few houses that day, and decided to head back after about three o'clock. They found Sebastian and Jasper first before going to the others, newly found supplies in hand.

Needless to say, Rachel had nearly cried when she saw Kurt pull out some deodorant.


	9. A Leader

It had been a few weeks since Blaine and Cooper had arrived in Lima, and now it was almost a routine for them to go scouting every day, rather than being cooped up inside the big three story house.

They were comfortable to say in the least, but currently they were all just surviving. What reason did they have to do anything anymore? And most of the time, they were bored. There wasn't much to do other than drink and fuck. And seeing as the only couples in the house were Finn and Rachel  _and_ Kurt and Blaine, there wasn't much of anything going on.

Blaine could tell that Kurt was trying to become intimate again, but to Blaine, it didn't ever feel like the right time. It wasn't because there was always someone else around and they were never really alone, or because they were constantly fighting to stay alive. It just… Blaine couldn't explain why he felt like he didn't want to be intimate. He only really figured it out when Kurt finally confronted him about it.

"What's wrong, Blaine?"

"What d'ya mean?" Blaine looked up tiredly, already half asleep.

"I've been flirting with you a lot and I've tried to be intimate. Hell, I've hand my hand on your thigh all night and you haven't reacted at all. Is it… Have I done something? Is it me?"

Blaine frowned, sitting up and looking at Kurt properly. He felt bad, he hadn't meant for Kurt to feel this way and he realised he should have explained himself earlier, just so he didn't his feelings. It was too late now, though; Kurt was already hurt, and now Blaine had to explain.

"Kurt… you haven't done  _anything._ I swear. I just… I feel…" Blaine bit his lip, struggling for the right words to get his point across. "I honestly don't know, Kurt. I guess I'm… scared? Of everything that's happened in the last what… two months? I just… what if something happens to one of us?  _Any_  of us? I still feel responsible for Quinn's death. I feel like if I was there, to stop that  _thing_ … she'd still be with us. She'd be able to see Beth. She wouldn't be dead and rotting in a grave near Amarillo. I'm scared, Kurt. I'm terrified. And because of that I just… I  _can't,_ Kurt."

Towards the end of what Blaine said, he'd lost eye contact with Kurt and was looking down at the bed, close to tears and his breathing had turned shaky. Kurt frowned slightly and just wrapped Blaine a tight hug.

"It's okay… I understand. I'm scared too…"

And they just sat there, arms around each other; comforting each other. Because that's what they needed. Not sex. Comfort. Love.

* * *

It was soon late August; summer was going quickly. Their food was growing, but they still scouted. It was unspoken, but one of the reasons they scouted was to look for other survivors. They couldn't be the only people left alive; they were determined to find others.

It was around midday and there were only a few clouds in the sky and Blaine, Puck, Santana and Kurt were out, walking in broad daylight in the streets. Blaine watched as Kurt twirled his knife in his hands out of boredom while Puck and Santana were breaking into cars using a wedge and a car antenna and searching them.

"You know, you'd think they've done it before."

Blaine looks at Kurt and smiles. "Yeah, if they hadn't I'm pretty sure an alarm would have gone off by now."

Kurt sheathed his knife and glances at Puck as he stumbles out of a car while Santana laughs at him.

"They'll have to teach everyone how to- that's not normal." Blaine frowns in confusing but then follows Kurt's line of sight and sees and pile of dead bodies in the middle of the road.

"Have any of us done that?" Blaine asks over to Puck, nodding his in the direction of the bodies.

Puck and Santana look over too. "Nope…"

"So… unless these creatures have started stacking up their own dead… there are some more survivors around here."

They got moving immediately and went over to the bodies before deciding to scout in the four houses surrounding, separately. Kurt and Blaine shared a look before heading into one, a look that said  _'be careful'._

Blaine wasn't far into the house when he heard a gunshot and a scream. Blaine was back out in seconds, running across the road, Kurt appearing by his side as Santana appeared out of the house she had gone into. The three of them went into the last house together, weapons at the ready, but were lowering them in milliseconds when they heard a girl's voice.

"Nick! God what have you done! Who are you!?"

Blaine, Kurt and Santana stepped into the main room to see Pucks gun lying at his feet while he stood in shock at the little girl who was around nine years old, and another guy lying on the floor, covered in blood.

"Puck was he alive!?"

"Oh my god."

Blaine ignored Kurt and Santana in that moment because even though he couldn't see the guy's face, he could see the girl. A girl who looked very familiar to him. Piper. Her name was Piper Duval.

The realization hit Blaine like a train and scrambled to the floor besides the guy who he could now hear was groaning quietly in pain. Blaine looked at the wound first. He had been shot in the right shoulder, and at a close range. And then Blaine finally looked at his face.

"Nick? Is that you?" Blaine asked quietly. His voice made the guy open his eyes slightly and brown met hazel.

"Blaine?"

"Hey."

Nick smiled a little, went to move and then grimaced in pain.

"Don't move. We'll take you back to where we're staying. You'll be okay." Nick nodded and Blaine looked at the others who were staring in shock. "Well!? Get moving! We'll take him back, see what we can do to help him. Puck, you and me hold him up, and don't give me that look you're the one who did this to him. Santana, would you be able to keep some sort of pressure on his shoulder to stop the bleeding while we carry him?" she nodded and Blaine turned to Kurt. "Kurt, could you-"

"Scout ahead. Kill anything that might be under cars and such. Make sure nothing is in your way. Got it." Kurt said, nodding. Blaine flashed him a smile before turning to Piper, Nick's little sister.

"Stay close to us Pipes. Nick'll be okay." Piper nodded. She had met Blaine several times and she trusted him, but she shot a wary look at Puck and stayed beside Blaine.

It took a while to figure out how to carry him while Santana had to apply pressure to the wound, but the eventually did it and they stumbled from the house and headed back to Sugar's. It took around half an hour to get back, and they were all exhausted when the they stumbled through the door, Sebastian and Jasper appearing and helping Blaine and Puck carry Nick further into the house. Sugar appeared and told them to take him to one of the spared bedrooms and lay him on a bed just before they lowered him to the couch. She followed them all up the stairs, Rachel right behind her.

When they got him to a room, Sugar ushered Santana, Puck, Sebastian, Kurt and Jasper out.

"My mom used to be a doctor, she taught me some stuff. Kurt go and get me some supplies please." She said before shutting the door on all of them and moving to Nick's bedside. Rachel was on the other side, and when Kurt returned with the supplies, they set to work together, Rachel doing whatever Sugar told her to do.

Piper sat vigil, watching their every move while Blaine told them what had happened, half expecting Piper to speak up and tell them, but she didn't, he went ahead and explained.

After a while, they had managed to remove the bullet and stitch him back up, then wrap him in bandages. He'd passed out from pain a while ago, and Piper was now sitting on the end of the bed while everyone else moved out. Sugar pulled Blaine to the side when they left into the hallway.

"I did what I could but I'm not a doctor myself, Blaine. I got the bullet and any fragments out. It didn't look like it hit anything major; Puck clearly isn't that good at aiming. I'll come back every so often to see how he is and change his bandages. And also, when we took his shirt off all I could think was 'daaaaaaaaaamn this guy is hot'. Is he gay? Cause it seems like all the hot guys are either gay, taken or dead." She grins. "See you later, Blaine!" And with that she left, following after Rachel, leaving Blaine stunned and wondering how she could jump from seriousness to… well,  _Sugar_  in three seconds flat.

He sighed and looked at Kurt tiredly. Kurt smiled slightly and held out his hand, which Blaine took and squeezed in comfort. Kurt led him to their room, leaving Piper to have some time alone with Nick.

They lay down on the bed and held each other.

"I'm proud of you." Kurt mumbled into Blaine's ear softly.

"Why?"

"Because back there, when Puck first shot Nick… you were the only one to react. You were brave… you acted like a real leader and… I'm just proud of you." Blaine smiles and looks up, quickly pecking Kurt on the lips.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

And they just laid there, thinking and holding each other.

_A real leader?_

Blaine had just acted on impulse to help his friend. He had been afraid back there, not brave. He had just simply not allowed himself the time to process the fear. Leader's think things through, he just did things.

Blaine wasn't a leader, and he didn't want to be.


	10. Be There

_Blaine was walking down a street, Sugar's three story house was at the end of it, but the way was blocked by cars strewn across the street. One car was lodged into a house, a gaping hole where it lay and the bricks were charred by a fire that's been long gone._

_Blaine was alone, and it felt too eerie and the sun was beginning to set. He didn't know where he was or why he was there, but he kept walking, heading to the garage, hoping to get there before the sun was set; but the road just seemed to get longer, and the sky grew darker._

_He heard them before he saw them; the creatures that awaited any straggler who dared stay outside till darkness fell. Merely the thought of them were enough to strike fear through Blaine and he started to run, weaving in and out of cars, still getting no closer to the garage._

_Suddenly, Blaine's slipped up, falling face first to the floor, his hands scraping against the gravel painfully. He was about to push himself up when he heard a growling sound from above him, and he instinctively rolled onto his back instead to see what danger he was in._

_But the sight of the creature above him, his heart stopped in his chest, his eyes widened in fear and he couldn't breathe._

_The thing above him was battered, bruised and bleeding. Its clothes were ripped and its skin was covered in gashes. Fresh blood surrounded its mouth as it moaned, its blank eyes staring down at Blaine._

_It was so familiar; the same brown hair on his head, the little blue left in his eyes, the shape of his face…_

_Cooper…_

_Behind this one were many other of the creatures looming closer to him. And Blaine could recognise every single one. Rachel, Finn, Tina, Mike, Sebastian, Artie, Santana, Brittany, Quinn... Everyone was there._

_And then he saw the last one, standing right behind his brother._

_Kurt…_

* * *

Blaine woke with a start, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. He looked around the room anxiously, finding out he was alone. Kurt was gone. Worry shot through him like a bullet and he grabbed the handgun from the bedside table and stood up. He loaded the gun and took it off safety and slowly crept towards the door, holding it ready.

He pushed open the door and peeked through, having the gun well aimed, but it was empty. Silent.

Blaine crept through the hall to the stairs, and slowly started inching his way down them. His worry started to grow more into fear, striking through his body painfully and he clenched his teeth to stop himself from yelling out for someone. Anyone.

He made it to the bottom of the stairs, and could still see or hear no one. He crept closer to the kitchen, where a light shone through the cracks in the doorway. He leant his ear against it, listening. A bead of sweat slowly dripped down his forehead as he focused.

It was quiet until he heard something scraping against the floor and he pushed open the door quickly and aimed his gun in the direction of the noise, his finger tensing on the trigger.

He looked before he shot, and lucky he did, because Kurt was standing there, having just got up from the chair, staring over at Blaine in shock. Blaine breathed out a sigh of relief and dropped the gun, letting it clatter to the floor.

"Blaine!?" Kurt gasped, his eyes flicking from the gun to Blaine.

"'M sorry…" He mumbled, just before Kurt rushed over and enveloped him in his arms. "Where is everyone?"

"Sleeping. I came down for some water…" Blaine blinked and looked to the window; it was still dark outside, but nearing sunrise. "Are you okay? What's with the gun? God, and you're  _covered_  in sweat!?"

Blaine hesitated, should he tell Kurt about his nightmare? Was it necessary to worry Kurt?

But this was Kurt. Blaine couldn't lie to him.

"I had a nightmare… and everyone had into… into those things… and I woke up and you were g-gone and I…" He blinked and looked up. "I was scared, Kurt. It was so quiet and I was scared you had… But it was stupid and I should've known and-"

"Hey. Shhh, that's enough. I understand, sweetie." Kurt kisses him softly, calming him. "Let's get you some water, huh?"

Blaine nods and Kurt fetches him the bottle he was drinking from and Blaine gulps it down quickly.

"I'm sorry, Kurt…"

"It's fine, Blaine." He took his hand and squeezed it. "You're not the only one suffering from nightma-"

There's a scream from above them that has them both looking up in shock, and running from the kitchen in a flash.

* * *

"So he woke up, screamed, and then fainted in shock?"

"Yes, Blaine. God, how many times do I have to explain it to you?" Sugar sighed, going back to focusing on changing Nick's bandages. Piper was stood at the other end of the room, staring intently at them. She hadn't left the room since her and Nick got here. Blaine wasn't even sure if they'd eaten…

"Why did he faint though?"

"I don't know, Blaine. You'd probably be in shock too if you'd been shot then woke up somewhere unfamiliar with a searing pain in your shoulder."

Blaine scowled at Sugar as she huffed, finishing up on Nick's bandage. She packed a few things back into a box and left, leaving Kurt and Blaine with Nick and Piper.

Blaine sighed and with one last look at his fellow ex warbler, he walked over to where Piper sat. She didn't make any acknowledgements to show she knew he was there.

"Piper?" Blaine spoke softly, not wanting to startle her.

She didn't say anything. She just sat there, staring at her big brother.

"… Are you hungry?"

He waits.

Still nothing.

"I'll go make you sandwich or something?" Kurt offers from the end of the room. She doesn't reply, but Kurt goes anyway, giving Blaine some space with her.

"Pipes, you haven't said a word since you've got here…"

This time he got a reaction. But it wasn't much; just a half-hearted shrug.

"Nick's going to be okay."

Nothing…

"Do you want to talk about anything? Like where you guys have been staying? Why are you all the way in Lima? What was with all the bodies in one massive pile?" He spoke slowly, with a break between every question, giving her time to answer, but she said nothing.

Finally, just before he was about to give up, he asked one last question. "Do you want a hug?"

And that was when she jumped of her chair and into Blaine's not-quite-so-ready arms. She was quiet at first as they hugged, Blaine's strong arms holding her, but then ever so slightly she let out a quiet sob. Blaine's heart broke and he clutched to his friends sister.

It reminded Blaine of the time Nick was having a pool party and he'd slipped a banged his head. The teen had ended up in hospital unconscious while Piper, who had been ten at the time, clung to Blaine helplessly. When Nick had woken up with a severe concussion and spotted the two, he'd been a wreck. When he'd finally gotten Blaine alone, he'd made him promise that if anything would ever happen to him, that he'd be there for Piper.

And Blaine was going to stick to that promise. He knew Nick would be okay, he had to be. But until then, Blaine wasn't going to let anything happen to Piper.


	11. Safe And Sound

Blaine had finally gotten Piper to eat something, although she still remained by Nick's side. Blaine tried to get her to explain what she and Nick had gone through; where'd they'd been, what they'd done. She remained stubborn, refusing to talk about it, adamant that when Nick woke up, he'd explain.

Blaine let her be, knowing that she was one of the most stubborn people he'd ever met.

Piper never liked to worry about the consequences of things, and always rushed into things hot headed. She was fierce and cocky. But when it comes to Nick… she tones herself down; becomes calm and collected. Which explained why she was currently quiet and unresponsive.

If Nick was awake, she wouldn't be worrying so much. Her older brother meant everything to her. He'd always been the smart one, the one who'd think everything though right to down every last little detail. The one who'd spend days making sure everything he did was perfect. Piper had always joked that Nick had OCD, but deep down, she loved it. Especially when he organised surprise birthday parties for her.

All Blaine really knew about their relationship was that they are s close as they are because their parents were never around so Nick would always be looking after Piper. And he'd never once been bitter about having to miss plans with friends because their parents had left for some reason without getting anyone to look after Piper. Nick saw Piper as more than a little sister. He treated like a member of the royal family. He loved her more than anything.

Nick had always been more than a big brother to Piper, too. He was her entire world.

* * *

"So Jasper suggested that we burn all the trash we've been creating so that it isn't all cluttered around the house. He, Finn and Puck are out getting anything wooden to burn. We want to do it before dinner so it's not dark when it finally dies out. We don't want to attract any unwanted… things."

Santana sat down after she'd finished, placing herself besides Rachel, who was keeping Beth entertained.

"That's a good idea." Kurt said. He was sitting in Blaine's lap, playing with the boys curls. It was only the five of them in the room; Sugar was upstairs checking on Nick and Piper, while Sebastian and Cooper were out scouting a little.

"…I think we should all go out and treat it as a real bonfire." Blaine proposed, hugging Kurt a little closer to him. "Have some fun for once. Sing a few songs. Just relax."

The other three nodded in agreement, and Beth grinned cheesily.

"I wan' sing! I sing wid' Daddy. I like when RayRay sing too!"

They all smiled at the toddler. Beth had to be the only cheerful one. Oh what they'd all give to be blissfully ignorant of the world in its current state.

"Has Piper said anything to you yet?" Kurt asked softly, looking down at his boyfriend.

Blaine sighed. "No. She keeps telling me that Nick will tell me when he wakes up."

Kurt frowns. "Blaine, she's just worried about Nick. If that was Cooper up there, would you want to talk?"

Blaine goes silent for a second before shrugging. "… I would though. That wasn't really a good example, Kurt. I trust you guys and I know you would help. With Piper, I'm the only one of us she knows, yet she hasn't seen me in over a year. As for the rest of us, what exactly have we done to earn her trust other than shoot her brother in the shoulder?"

The room was silent, none of them knowing how to respond.

"She's scared." Blaine continued. "And she's waiting for Nick to reassure her that we can be trusted. Until he's awake, we'll get nothing out of her."

* * *

"Hey Pipes, you want to come to the bonfire with us?" Blaine asked, peeking his head through the door.

She shook her head.

"…You sure? It's going to be fun. We're just going to relax and stop worrying for a bit… Nick is still going to be here when you get back."

She didn't move. Blaine sighed.

"It'll only be for a while… But if not… just remember you're welcome to join."

He goes to close the door but stops when Piper stands, looking over at Blaine and nodding slightly. Blaine gave her a comfortingly smile and held out his hand. With one last look at her brother, she took Blaine's hand.

* * *

The bonfire was nice. All twelve of them were sitting around and just talking; they'd yet to break into song, all of them still a little uneasy. Piper stayed in between Blaine and Cooper, and as far away from Puck as she could get.

Blaine decided it was time to break the ice and started singing softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear.

_I remember tears streaming down your face_

_When I said, "I'll never let you go"_

Everyone turned to listen, recognising the song.

_When all those shadows almost killed your light_

_I remember you said, "Don't leave me here alone"_

_But all that's dead and gone and passed tonight_

Puck, who'd brought out his guitar, started strumming along. Kurt, who was beside Blaine joined in on the chorus.

_Just close your eyes_

_The sun is going down_

_You'll be alright_

_No one can hurt you now_

_Come morning light_

_You and I'll be safe and sound_

They all listened as Puck played the instrumental, and once the second verse started, Rachel, Finn, Cooper and Santana joined Kurt and Blaine in singing.

_Don't you dare look out your window, darling,_

_Everything's on fire_

_The war outside our door keeps raging on_

_Hold on to this lullaby_

_Even when music's gone_

_Gone_

And then Puck started singing too, Beth staring up at him, smiling. The only ones he remained silent were Sugar, Sebastian, Jasper, Beth and Piper.

_Just close your eyes_

_The sun is going down_

_You'll be alright_

_No one can hurt you now_

_Come morning light_

_You and I'll be safe and sound_

They all sung through the  _Ooh's_  and repeated the chorus one last time, all of their spirits had been lifted slightly, and they were all smiling. Genuinely.

Everyone went quiet after it finished, which is why they were shocked when someone broke the silence.

"That was nice."

They were more shocked when it came from the direction of the house.

"NICK!" Piper was the first to jump up, running over to her brother who was leaning against the back door, while everyone else stared in shock.

Piper hugged him tightly, burying her face into his chest. Nick didn't make any sound of protest or pain, he held it in.

Blaine got up quickly and rushed over. "Hey…"

Piper let go of Nick and the boy nearly tumbled over. "Hi." He replied, just as he caught himself against the wall.

"You're supposed to be resting… Come on." Blaine takes Nick inside, motioning for everyone else to get moving. Sebastian and Jasper get to putting out the bonfire, Kurt and Rachel take Beth to the kitchen to start working on some food for everyone, while Puck, Finn, Sugar and Cooper follow Blaine inside.

Blaine makes Nick sit on the couch and hands him a bottle of water. Sugar pushes past him and sits next to Nick, starting to work on taking his bandages off, which Nick didn't seem to mind her doing, seeing as he barely even acknowledged her.

Piper was sitting as close to Nick as she could, Blaine kneeled on the floor close by and Finn, Cooper and Puck sat on the armchairs.

"So uh… what happened?" Nick asked, looking at his friend.

"Well… Me, Kurt, Puck and Santana were out scouting for some food. We split up and  _Puck_  seemed to think you were one of those of things and shot you. But luckily for you, he can't aim for shit."

Piper mumbled something incoherent and shot Puck a glare, Nick just shrugged, but winced painfully, regretting his move.

"What are you doing in Ohio though? I thought you'd gone to LA?" He asked, grimacing as he saw his wound after Sugar had finally taken off the bandages.

"Why do you think I'm back here, Nick?"

"Oh... yeah…" Nick nodded and looked down, trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder.

"Nick… I… What's happened with you?" Blaine asked quietly. "I mean like… where have you been and such?"

Nick sighed and glanced at Piper, wondering why she hadn't bothered to tell them yet. So Nick launched into story mode.

"So, when it all broke out, Piper and I were locked in our house for a few days. We didn't have much food or water-" He winced as sugar started cleaning the wound in his shoulder, then continued, sounding tired already. "After about four days, Jeff appeared at our door with his older brother Jeremy. And they had this whole drastic plan to break into Dalton, mainly because it's big, familiar and has walls lining the perimeter. We decided to go for it and we went about two weeks into this mess, having spent most of our time looking for food and making sure the plan was perfect in case any of things had gotten into Dalton. We were climbing over the wall when the gate opened and there stood Thad and Trent, the smug little shits. Beaten us to the punch with some guy called Tate Underwood, said he used to be an engineer. Not like it matters… anyway, we started scouting and looking around for some more food, possible survivors. Found some girl named Zoey, she's sixteen. Yeah so me and Piper came to Lima hoping to find someone we knew. We were clearing out those dead zombies or whatever when we heard a noise. Next thing I know I've got a bullet in my shoulder."

They had remained silent while Nick had spoken, listening intently. And then something seemed to dawn on Nick, and his face fell.

"Oh shit! They're going to be worrying about me and Piper!" He moved to jump up, but Sugar pushed him back down, trying to focus on the bullet wound.

"Hey, don't worry." Cooper said reassuringly, giving him a small smile. "We'll send a dew people over to Westerville in the morning. It's a long drive and it's starting to get dark."

"You need to rest up. You're hurt, Nick. You're not going anywhere for a while." Sugar said, finally pulling out some clean bandages.

Nick sighed, frowning.

Just then, the girls and Kurt came back in with some food, and the second Nick saw it, his stomach grumbled rather loudly. Kurt chuckled and gave him some first, but Sugar wouldn't let him touch it until she'd finished bandaging him up. The second he got his hand on the food, he wolfed it down within a minute.

He looked up to find everyone staring at him, holding back their laughs. He scowled playfully. "Hey, you guys would be this hungry too if you'd been passed out for… wait how long was I out?"

"About two days." Sebastian said, just as he was coming in with Jasper. He smiled "Nice to see you awake, Nick."

Nick nods. "Nice to be awake."


	12. Dalton

"I thought Puck was coming?"

Sebastian glanced over at Santana in the passenger seat quickly, before focusing his eyes back on the road.

"By the time I was up he'd gone scouting with Cooper. Rachel and Finn are looking after Beth today. So I'm stuck with you and meerkat junior here." She said, motioning to Jasper in the backseat. "Blaine would have come instead but he's with Nick."

Sebastian nodded, making a left turn.

They were silent then, none of them making a sound until they got to their destination.

Dalton Academy.

They all got out at the front gate, which was securely padlocked. There was no sign of anyone around to let them in either.

So they went over.

They moved the car so it was right up next to the wall and started climbing. Sebastian was the first over, standing ready to catch Santana and Jasper. Once they were all over and had brushed themselves off, they headed towards the school, guns at the ready just as a precaution.

The opened the main door and stepped in. Sebastian had never seen the place so empty.

"Hello!? Jeff!? Thad!?" Sebastian yelled, his voice echoing through the halls.

There was no reply. But Sebastian knew that Nick wouldn't have fed them false information. So he tried again, louder.

"JEFF! THAD! WHOEVER ELSE IS HERE!"

"Jeez Sebastian shut your loud mouth. We heard you the first time." Jeff had appeared through a doorway, a smaller, similar looking boy behind him, clearly his younger brother, Jeremy.

They lowered their weapons.

"Good to see ya man. And Jasper…and… aren't you from New Directions or something?"

" 's Santana." He nodded in response.

"How did you know we were here?"

"Nick-"

"Nick's alive!?" Jeff asked, just as a few more people stepped into the room. Namely Thad, Trent, Wes, some guy who Santana assumed was the Tate guy Nick had mentioned, and the only female, who had to be Zoey.

"Yeah. Puck, Santana's friend, shot him in the shoulder though. Completely by accident, but he's fine. So is Piper." Sebastian answered.

"…Who else is alive?… Well, with you anyway."

"Blaine, Kurt, Cooper, Rachel, Finn, Sugar, Puck and his daughter Beth."

"I don't know who half of those people are, but that's great."

And he finally cracked a smile.

* * *

"Safe houses?"

Finn nods.

"Why?"

"Blaine, it's clear that Dalton is obviously safer. It's bigger, the walls are stronger. Ever since Nick mentioned it it's been evident that we're all heading over there. But what if something happens? What if someone goes scouting too far and they need somewhere safe to stay for the night. We should leave some food here and keep the place locked up." Rachel filled in from beside Finn.

Blaine sighs tiredly, rubbing at his eyes. "Sure." He says offhandedly. It made sense, but Blaine was too stressed to think about it. He was too busy making sure Nick was alright, that both him and Piper were eating and drinking.

Rachel smiled at him. "Go get some sleep Blaine."

He looks up at her, trying to hide a yawn behind his hand. "I don't need to sleep." He says adamantly.

"Baney a liar." Beth says from she's sitting on Finn's lap. He narrows his eyes at the toddler who just grins back happily.

"I don't have time to sleep right now-"

"Blaine, stop searching for excuses. You're not looking after Nick and Piper right now cause they're both sleeping, you're not on a scouting trip either. You're not sorting the food, you're not babysitting Beth. You're not doing anything right now. You're overworking yourself with all this thinking. You need to sleep Blaine."

He sighs again, before getting up, muttering "fine" before leaving the room.

Rachel sighed too and looked at her boyfriend. "He's too stressed out."

"I'm not surprised." Finn said, barely glancing at her as he let Beth climb to the floor. "Everyone is looking to him. Waiting and expecting him to know what to do. He's been thrown into being the leader of this group. No one here is going to act without Blaine's say so, and he's freaked out. I would be too. I mean, the world has gone to shit, Rach, We're surrounded by fucking zombies and Blaine knows just as much as everyone else. Why him?"

Rachel didn't know what to say, just shrugging in agreement.

Back upstairs, Blaine had stopped just outside of the open bedroom door. Kurt was lying on his side sleeping peacefully, a small smile on his sleeping face. Blaine was marvelling the sight. This was the first time he'd seen Kurt truly peaceful since he'd got back to Lima. The first moment of pure calm.

Blaine smiled and moved inside, shutting the door quietly and stepping over to the bed. He climbed in beside Kurt slowly, careful not to jostle him too much. Once safely tucked into the bed and Kurts' side, he felt the sleeping boy wrap his arms around him unconsciously. It felt safe, warm and familiar. It felt like home.


	13. Captain Awesome

"Guys, I'm fine. I want to help pack." Nick said from where he sat; watching everyone pack food into boxes, ready to move them to Dalton.

Santana had come back the morning after she'd gone up to Dalton with Sebastian and Jasper, and had returned with Jeff by her side. He'd been very excited to see Nick again, but they immediately got to business with Finn and Blaine to talk about what to do from here.

From what Nick had heard they were planning on making this a safe house, and moving everyone to Dalton. And since then, everyone had been rushing around packing everything they had into boxes and putting them in any car they had.

The group was currently on their third load, having to drive to and from Dalton to get everything there.

"No Nick, you're supposed to be resting." Kurt said from where he was sorting canned food.

"I'm fine. I can move my arm and it's not hurting-"

Kurt shot him a sharp look, eyebrows raised.

"...that much. Come on, I can sort cans like you? Anything? I'm dying of boredom here, Kurt."

Kurt sighed and Blaine walked in at that moment. "Nick, you know you need to rest. You shouldn't strain your muscles. Maybe you could read a book or something?"

"Are you kidding me!? Blaine, I don't want to read a book! I want to  _help_!" Nick was practically pleading now, desperate to be given something to do.

Blaine sighed, running a hand through his curls and closing his eyes as he took a minute to think.

"Uhh... do you want to go with Jeff on the next drive up to Dalton? The next car is almost full-"

"Yes!" Nick knew he probably answered way too quickly, but he hadn't managed to actually talk to his best friend since he arrived this morning. He slipped off the counter he was sitting on smoothly, careful not to jostle his arm in fear of actually hurting his shoulder. "Thanks, Blaine"

"Don't worry about it." He said in reply, not even really focused on Nick. Nick watched as he yawned and made his way over to Kurt's side. The two shared a glance and Nick took this quick look as his cue to leave. So he did, and made his way outside to the car, where Jeff was just closing the trunk of the car.

The blond turned around and smiled at the sight of Nick.

"Hey, you coming?"

"Yeah. I'm dying just sitting around doing nothing."

They smile and get in the car.

Jeff starts driving, and at first they're silent, tense. Nick looked over at his best friend, his blonde hair shaggier and longer than he used to have it. It made Nick wonder just how long his own hair had gotten.

Then Jeff glanced at him.

"How's your shoulder holding up?" He asked.

"Fine." Nick replies, shrugging a little. He looked at the road stretching out ahead of them, and as Jeff made a quick turn, something hit him. "Hey, I thought you didn't have a licence?"

Jeff chuckles, raising an eyebrow.

"You know, I don't think it matters anymore, Nick." He let out a laugh and side eyed Nick, who just shrugged in response.

"I guess..."

The car went silent again after that, so Jeff started humming a familiar tune to them both. The one they sang together when they auditioned for The Warblers. Nick smirked and looked over at Jeff.

And, before they knew it, they were both singing at the top of their lungs, seemingly forgetting where they were.

Until Jeff saw a person on the road and hit the brakes, the car jolting to a stop. The jerk made them both lurch forwards then back again, fast enough to gain whiplash.

And as Nick rubbed his already injured shoulder in pain, they both looked at who they'd stopped so suddenly for.

And the sight made them both freeze in shock.

"But I thought..." Nick just gaped, eyes wide.

"Holy. Shit."

There, standing before them, was one of the... creatures...

A zombie.

...In the middle of the day?

* * *

The zombie was stood way too close for comfort before Cooper impaled it through the eye and into its head.

Cooper sighed as he pulled his knife back out, immune to the gruesomeness of the blood and... other gory bits that came with it.

The zombie fell to the ground and Cooper circled back to the entrance of the building he was in.

Nobody had even noticed that he'd gone scouting alone. Even though he was supposed to be with Finn and Puck. Everyone was just too focused on themselves or their significant others to notice Cooper.

And he wondered why no one was looking to him for help. He was the oldest out of all them after all. The most experienced in life...

But then he remembered Blaine. Blaine had always been more level headed than him. Even as kids, Blaine was more responsible, more resilient, more rational...

Blaine was a natural born leader.

No wonder why everyone trusted him...

Cooper worried for him, though. His little brother was so caught up with making sure  _everyone_   _else_ was okay that he was forgetting to look after himself.

Cooper was brought back to reality by a sharp stinging in his left ankle.

He groaned and tried not to think about it.

The pain was from an old injury, one he tried not to think about too much. But every so often the pain would spike, reminding him that it was still there.

Cooper was just about to lift up his jeans to take a look when he heard a noise.

It was quiet, and he almost missed it.

Then he heard it again.

A soft, timid meow, coming from the next room over.

A little bit of hope filled Cooper's chest. He wasn't sure why, but it did.

He quickly followed the little noise as it repeated quite a bit.

It took him a while, but he eventually found the source.

A small, young Somali cat, stuck behind some books on the highest shelf in the room.

Cooper smiled as he picked it up.

The cat stopped meowing when Cooper found him, and begun to purr loudly and nose at him.

"Hey little guy." Cooper said, grinning. "Thank God you're friendly. You're way to cute to leave around in this shit hole."

The cat blinked and Cooper laughed.

"I think... I'm going to call you... Captain Awesome, The Cat-Leader Of Awesomeness."

The cat stares at him.

"What!? It would've been Captain America, but you're more awesome than that."

* * *

"You can't keep it."

Blaine spoke just as Cooper walked through the door, spotting the animal in his arms immediately.

"Wha-!?"

Blaine stared him down, jaw locked. The two just stared at each other, seemingly having a silent conversation with just their eyes. Kurt and Rachel watched them, their stares getting harder with each passing second, until-

"No, Cooper. We have no idea how this outbreak started and it could've been an animal bite for all we know! That thing could be a carrier of this... thing! You can't keep it!" Blaine looked adamant, his voice was strong, unwavering.

"He's friendly! And look at him! He's freaking adorable!" Cooper let the cat turn in his arms so that he was facing the others. Kurt awed at the sight, and Rachel's eyes widened and she jumped up, grabbing the animal from his arms, cooing at how adorable she thought it was.

Blaine's facade cracked a little... The cat was adorable, and the way Kurt's eyes had lit up at the sight of it... and Rachel's too, obviously. It'd be nice, he supposed... having an animal around, and hey it's not like they'd ever run out of cat food... He sighed.

"Fine. But he's your responsibility, Coop. Make sure he doesn't bite anyone." Cooper's already growing smile split into a happy grin. "I mean it, Coop!"

Cooper snatched his cat from Rachel. "You hear that, Captain Awesome, The Cat-Leader Of Awesomeness!? You get to staaaaaaaay!" He almost squealed in delight, while he got confused glances from the others.

"What on earth did you just call that poor thing!?" Kurt asked as Blaine shook his head at his brother's antics.

"You heard me, Kurt! And that's his name, Right Cap? I was going to call him Captain America, but he is like ten times more awesome than that. So it's Captain Awesome. And the rest of it is because a cat this cute cannot live without a Title."

Kurt laughed at Cooper, but their joy was cut short as Nick, Jeff and Sebastian barged into the room, worry etched into their faces. Blaine immediately felt the tension in the room rise, something was wrong, and it was bad...

"What happened?" Blaine asked instantly, his eyes flicking to each boy respectively. Nick was rubbing his shoulder, looking a little confused. Sebastian looked just as confused as Nick, but more focused. Jeff looked the most worried, almost shifty... panicky.

Jeff was the one who spoke.

"We came back as soon as we could. We saw it on the way. At first I just said it was our imagination. I didn't think about too much. We carried on to Dalton. We dropped everything off and Sebastian came with us when he saw how panicky I was and oh god... it was still there... but there were more... maybe three or four... I don't know. Sebastian killed them. I... what..."

Blaine was confused, Jeff was talking too fast at jet speed, and he was making no sense. Sebastian did what?

"Jeff! Calm down! Seb, what happened? Did you kill... people?" Blaine asked him, confused, hoping he'd heard wrong. Killing zombies was one thing... but killing a person?

"No! Jeff can't explain for shit. Zombies. In daylight, Blaine."

"What? But I've never seen them in the day before... I thought they only came out when it was dark?" Kurt asked, eyes wide.

Sebastian shrugged. "Well we've never been given a reason to why they do that. I just assumed they were afraid of the light or something... But this... It won't be long before they're all out there during the day. It's going to get harder to scout like this... It's going to get harder. Period. We all screwed."

Blaine just stood there in shock.

It was a setback. But then, the whole world had already gone to shit, what was another problem to deal with?

They could deal with this. They'd have to.

"Okay we need to hurry. I'd say about another three loads before we've got everything over. But we can do that all now. We've got three cars here and one truck so it'll be easy. Everyone start loading up. We need to get to Dalton."

Everyone was about to move, but they stopped when Nick finally spoke.

"Is... is that a cat?"

"CAPTAIN AWESOME!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys sorry I suck, but I actually think that maybe it's possibly that i'm slightly starting to get my mojo back? Possibly. I don't know.
> 
> But here's this chapter. I'm working on it okay, my writings not as good as it used to be and i'm struggling with this a lot. But my plan is really helping out and I found that I'm getting more done if I handwrite it first then type it up after, so i'm sticking to this technique for now.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this. and Hopefully I'll get more done soon.


	14. Once A Warbler

It wasn't long before everyone was fully settled in at Dalton. There was more than enough room for everybody, especially since there were two hundred and seventy six dorm rooms at Dalton in one of the buildings, and then the school itself had plenty of classrooms. But the commons, cafeteria and the music room were the most used by the group, which, after joining with Dalton, there were now nineteen of, twenty, if you included Captain Awesome.

Blaine definitely preferred it here than at Sugar's house. But it was weird. It felt so eerie to walk through Dalton's halls, and for them to be completely void of life. He missed it...

With so many rooms, Blaine expected everyone to be quite far apart (for privacy reasons), but everyone had sort of... clustered into one small section. There was safety in numbers, and it helped everyone sleep a little easier, knowing that they were surrounded by the living.

Time seemed to move slowly. The group had little to do other than scout for basic necessities. They were growing bored quickly. Especially Sebastian, who was angry that everyone agreed on a no drinking rule. This way there'd be no accidents and they could all think clearly, soberly, in case an emergency popped up. But that didn't mean Sebastian had to like it.

And then Rachel had come up with an idea; she wanted to start a farm of sorts. Plant seed to create fresh food. Now it would've been a wonderful idea had it not been fall. They were rapidly approaching winter and they knew nothing would grow.

So the group decided that the only fun they could have was by playing board games, doing jigsaw puzzles, reading countless books and pretending everything was okay...

Scouting trips got fewer and farther apart, only ever needing to go on one if they wanted new games or reading material. They'd obviously collect any food they'd find at the same time though.

As of yet, none of them had seen anymore daylight zombies, as Jeff has so aptly named them, which soothed everyone's nerves a little. But the threat and question still remained.

Why aren't there more out in the sun?

They also hadn't found any other survivors so far, which was disheartening for them all. They couldn't be the only ones left. There had to be more.

Blaine was a lot more at ease now they lived in Dalton. He was surrounded by a lot of his old friends, and Kurt was by his side. He was happier. They all were.

Well... as happy as you could be in this world.

Danger still loomed around every corner. They still had to be cautious.

So they set up a perimeter watch. Having people on shifts to monitor the walls around Dalton. Jasper was put in charge of that by Sebastian. Of course the boy complained about that, he wanted to be a scouter, but everyone agreed that at fourteen, he was  _too_  young. So he bitterly did as he was told, which eased Sebastian a lot, now that he no longer had to worry so much about his little brother. And Blaine found that after that, Sebastian was a lot nicer to be around.

One day, mid-October maybe, Rachel pulled Blaine into an empty class room. Blaine tried to calm his racing heart by breathing steadily. He worried far too easily, and surely it wasn't anything major.

"Blaine, I have a few requests for your next scouting trip."

Blaine let out a breath, "Okay...? Why don't you just write a list?"

"No! I just... we've been too... shy? To mention it... I suppose. But you're gay and I drew the short straw so I have to ask and just-"

"What is it, Rachel?"

"Tampons! Pads! Maybe even birth control so we don't have to deal with it at all!"

Rachel was blushing bright red by the end of that, and Blaine was... shocked.

"Okay... why didn't you just tell Finn? Your  _boyfriend_. And because I'm gay? Rachel, four of the guys here are gay. And why not ask Kurt? He's your best friend. And why hasn't Santana just done it? She goes scouting enough."

Rachel scowled at him.

"I asked you cause you don't have a blabber mouth and I trust you. Santana hasn't managed to find any... so I was hoping you'd be able to go to a pharmacist? You could also stock up on all kinds of first aid stuff while you're there too! I'm sure Sugar would appreciate that. But seriously. There are five girls, and we're running low."

Blaine sighed, looking into Rachel's big, brown, pleading eyes.

"Sure. Write a list of everything you need, then ask around to see what everyone else wants, and then give it to me. I'll take Cooper, Thad and Santana tomorrow. We'll drive around to the closest towns. Find everything. And next time, just ask. Seriously don't stress too much, alright? God knows we all stress enough as it is."

She smiles and hugs him, "Thanks Blaine." He smiles too and hugs her back.

They pull apart and leave the room, without another word, and Rachel ran off to make the list while Blaine went to find Kurt.

He found him in the music room along with Nick, Jeff, Thad, Trent and Sebastian. And as he walked in, he realized they were the only Warblers...

Anyway, Kurt and Trent were both reading, while simultaneously joining in on the group conversation. Blaine silently moved over to Kurt and sat on the floor beside him, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek as a silent hello. Kurt smiled and Blaine closed his eyes, letting them rest for a bit, before the change in conversation stirred him, beckoning him to join.

"So... where were the others?" Trent had asked, absentmindedly.

"Well, Wes was with his girlfriend and her family up in Wisconsin when it broke out. I don't know about anyone else though..." Thad said, looking at the floor.

"David was going to go on holiday with his family to Hawaii. Not sure if they ever went though..." Jeff said, biting his lower lip worriedly.

Kurt put down his book, interested too now.

"Jon said something about working at Six Flags in Columbus over the summer." Nick added, thoughtfully.

It went quiet after that, all of them wondering about what could have happened to their friends.

Then Sebastian spoke up.

"You guys depress me."

"Oh shut up, Seb. Those guys are a part of this group. Apart of this family. I'd kill to be able to see them again. They're our brothers." Thad interjected quickly, defensively.

"Yeah." Jeff said, a small smile playing on his lips. "Once a Warbler, always a Warbler. Right?"

That made everyone one in the room smile. Jeff was one hundred per cent right.

Whether they found their lost friends or not, they'd always be a family.

They'd always be a Warbler.

* * *

 

"So why did I have to come?" Cooper asked Blaine from the backseat of the truck. Thad was sitting beside him, drumming his fingers on his legs absentmindedly. Santana was besides Blaine in the front, reading the list Rachel had written.

"Because I asked you to, Coop." Blaine replied, turning a corner.

"Yeah I know, but why – Are you indicating? You know there's no one around to see that, like ever."

Blaine sighed, he hadn't even noticed. "Force of habit, Cooper."

He shrugs, then, "What are we getting, anyway?"

"A sock to shove in your mouth because you never fucking shut up." Santana replied, slipping the list into the breast pocket of her leather jacket. Cooper scowled.

"Medical supplies for Sugar, mainly. But apparently we're also running out of books-"

"Dalton has its own fucking library-"

"Young adult fiction books that have never once graced the shelves of Dalton, Coop. And just stuff in general, you know. Better safe than sorry."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Thad asked, eyebrows raised.

"It means anything we find today could be extremely valuable in the long run, okay? So just keep your eyes open. We'll be moving around a lot today, just grab anything that looks useful."

They nodded and remained silent for the rest of the journey.

Their first stop was in Newark, as they had gone away from Columbus, because they thought it might be more dangerous to be in a big city like that, and they hurriedly cleared out the first pharmacists' they'd found. Once clear of zombies, Cooper and Thad went to go search the back for anything, while Santana and Blaine stayed at the front of the shop, where Santana got to work quickly, grabbing all the things the girls had asked for.

Blaine walked around, browsing, picking up a few things and putting them in a plastic bag.

"Thanks for doing this, Blaine." Santana said to him.

"No problem. Really. Next time, just ask. I'm sure all the guys would jump to get all that for you girls. I personally feel bad for you. I mean, we all have to go through hell, but then on top of that, you have to deal with periods. Damn."

Santana just nodded and smiled a little, and Blaine knew that that was as much of a thank you he'd get from her today.

"Come on, guys! In and out! Let's go!"

Cooper and Thad returned, their own bags full. They left together and headed for the next destination.

They found a library right beside a clinic, and decided to split up. This time Santana and Thad went to the clinic, while Blaine and Cooper headed to the library.

They grabbed every book on the list, as well as many others, and Cooper even found an entire collection of comic books. He also jokingly threw in a survival guide while saying "You reckon the author is still alive?".

Blaine just shook his head at his antics and kept collecting books.

Then he heard a gunshot.

With a quick glance at Cooper, they both dropped what they were holding and ran outside, pulling out their guns as they did so.

They ran out and Santana and Thad appeared at their side, looking just as worried and confused as Blaine and Cooper. It wasn't them... so that meant...

Another shot, coming from across the street, in what looked like a restaurant.

Survivors.

They ran towards it as even more gunshots sounded.

Thad reached it first and he yanked the door open forcefully, only to stumble backwards as zombies fell out of it. The place was packed with them.

"What do we do?" He asked, stepping back.

"Clear it. Go."

And they started to shoot, carefully aiming as zombies crawled out the door. They got closer and Cooper was the first to step inside and start clearing in there. The others followed him quickly, gunshots blaring in their ears in the enclosed space, deafening them.

There were so many of the monsters and Blaine was having trouble keeping track of what exactly was going on. Thad and Santana were further back, by the door. And Cooper was... gone...

"COOPER!?" Blaine screamed above the ringing in his ears.

He looked around, searching his eyes moving so quickly and-

He was knocked to the floor. A zombie had managed to topple him while he was distracted and it took all of Blaine's strength to hold it at bay. More were falling around him and he couldn't tell if they were being shot, or noticing him on the floor...

All he could see was the zombie above him, the flesh rotting away, its eyes bloodshot, but intent, the irises were pure white, leaving just the dark pupil. It stank, the smell making Blaine gag as he held it away from him. It took all he could not to throw up...

The things jaw was snapping away, trying to reach him, as its hands clawed at Blaine's shirt, unable to pierce through...

He was going to die...

A knife appeared wedged into the zombies head above him, and it fell limp on top of him, only to be pushed aside roughly, and Blaine found himself being hauled up by Thad, who dragged him outside.

Next thing he knew he was lying on the grass outside, Thad and Santana were speaking above him. He could see their lips moving hurriedly, but he still couldn't hear over the ringing.

He face felt wet, and at first he thought it was blood, but then he realized he was crying. Tears fell from his eyes from what was either fear for his life, or for his brothers.

The ringing was starting to lessen, and he could hear Thad and Santana now, shouting, asking if he was okay, and gunshots, still, echoing from the building.

Blaine suddenly sat up with a jolt, immediately throwing up into the grass. He felt Thad's hand on his back, doing nothing to ease him.

"C-Cooper." Was the only word Blaine could muster, spitting out bile as he did so.

They didn't answer him, and now Blaine realised the shooting had stopped. He looked up at the building, his eyes flickering wildly.

"No..." He whispered, hoping, praying that his brother was about to walk through those doors with that stupid smirk on his face.

Well, he was partly right.

Someone appear from the side of the building. Cooper, sporting the aforementioned smirk, and then more behind him, two adult figures and two much smaller...

"No need to thank me-"

"You asshole!" Blaine yelled, suddenly regaining all of his strength, standing and walking over to Cooper and hitting him weakly in the chest. "Don't you ever do that again!" He screamed, still hitting him, crying once more. "You complete and utter ass-"

"I'm sorry..."

"Look, whatever we gotta go!" Someone who Blaine had never seen before was running past them, towards their truck, closely followed by another who was holding the hands of two equally blonde children. Blaine caught sight of the entrance to the building, which now had zombies crawling out of it into the daylight...

They all sprinted towards the truck, no longer wanting to test their luck. Blaine was in no shape to drive, so Cooper jumped in the front with Santana, Thad jumped in the backseat with the random guy. And the last one was struggling to get the kids to climb into the back, so Blaine quickly hopped in and reached for one, helping the boy by pulling them up as he lifted them, before jumping in himself.

Blaine quickly tapped the top, letting the others know they were in and then they off, forcing Blaine to sit down.

He took a moment to breathe, before finally looking up. The two kids, a girl and a boy, were watching him with wild eyes. They were huddled close together, leaning into the older boy, who looked almost exactly like them, except ten years older.

Then it snapped. Blaine knew him.

"Sam?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been writing so much lately and i'm really proud of this chapter. I have the next chapter all planned out and i'm totally ready to write it, but seeing as it takes me so long, i'm warning you guys beforehand that i might be writing a oneshot, and that might take up my time instead, so sorry if next one doesn't come till january, but my writing is getting better (i think) and my chapters are getting longer, so hopefully it won't be a bad wait.
> 
> But all in all, i hope you guys like this chapter and are still even reading this..
> 
> So if you are, thank you so much.


	15. Enzo

The second they made it back to Dalton, Blaine made a beeline for a bathroom to wash himself up, leaving the others to sort out the newcomers. He barely even noticed Kurt as he rushed past.

When he came back out, freshly clean and in new clothes, the hallways were deadly silent and it took him a while before he found everyone. Every single one of them were crowded in the common room. They all glanced up when he came in, deathly quiet, and he moved to sit next to Kurt, who wrapped an arm around him, comfortingly, holding him close and kissing his cheek.

“Cooper and Santana told us everything that happened while you were out. We were just waiting for you to come in for Sam and Enzo to tell their story.” Kurt told him softly. Blaine nodded and looked at the two in question. He assumed Enzo was the guy that had been with Sam and his siblings.

And not a second later, Sam began his story.

* * *

 

_Sam slammed the door shut with all his weight before spinning around and grabbing Stacey, picking her up and then running straight upstairs. He ran with her into Stevie’s room, where he slammed the door shut once again. He placed Stacie on the bed where her brother was already sat._

_“Sammy, what’s going on-“_

_There was a loud groan outside the door and Stacie screamed._

_Sam grabbed her, slamming his hand over her mouth. He was dripping with sweat and his breathing was heavy. The adrenaline running through his veins was starting to wear off. The fear was starting to kick in._

_No he had to stay strong. Not for him. For them._

_He’d just watched his parents die, he had to protect them with his life._

_The remained holed up in Stevie’s room for three days, but quickly they realised that they needed food. Sam left them locked in the room, telling them not to open the door no matter what they heard, and went to clear the house. He found his father in the living room, and he had to kill him. He had to kill the monster his father had become._

_It was painful, and Sam let himself finally cry. They weren’t here to see him after all. And thankfully, there had been no other monsters in the house. So Sam picked up his dad’s dead, half rotten body and carried him out into the yard. He found a small patch of overgrown grass to put him in and proceeded to cover him with fallen branches from trees. It wasn’t much of a grave, but Sam mainly did it so that they wouldn’t have to see him._

_He then went back in and let them out of Stevie’s room. He kept them fed from then on, now that they had free roam of their house again. But he never let them leave, not once. They managed to stay there for a while before one day, while they were all upstairs, they heard the door bang._

_Sam stood, put his finger to his lips and motioned for them to stay. He then picked up his baseball bat and left the room, quietly sneaking down the stairs. The first thing he noticed was that the door, which he’d always kept locked, was wide open, the handle broken._

_He gripped the bat tightly, his heart racing in fear. He heard banging sounds in the kitchen and headed towards them. He turned the corner quietly, bat raised._

_A man was rummaging around in the cupboards, pulling out all their remaining food._

_“HEY!” Sam yelled, walking in, bat in hand, shaking._

_The man jumped in shock and dropped what he was holding and immediately threw his hands in their air and turned. He had dark green eyes and messy dark hair. He was foreign._

_“What are you doing?” Sam asked, nervously but angrily._

_“I thought this house was abandoned I’m sorry! I’m just hungry! Please don’t hurt me.” His accent was British, maybe? And he seemed sincere enough._

_“We don’t have much to give.”_

_“We?”_

_“My brother and my sister. We have so little as it is. Why us? Why not someone else?”_

_“Kid... have you not left this house?” Sam shook his head, his hands growing sweaty as he adjusted his grip. “Kid... there’s no one left.”_

_Sam shook his head again, this time in disbelief. “You’re wrong. Someone’s coming to rescue us. The disease will be gone soon.”_

_“There’s no one left. No one’s coming. We’re fucked man.”_

_“No...” Sam’s voice cracked and he let go a single tear, all hope leaving him._

_The bat fell to the floor as Sam covered his face. The man watched for a minute before talking again._

_“Look, kid, you can stay here as long as you want and keep pretending things will get better. Or you can come with me and we can protect each other. Find food and maybe other people. There’s a safety in numbers, kid. And those siblings of yours probably need safety, right?”_

_Sam looked up at him, eyes wide._

_“Choose what’s best for them, kid.”_

_“I’m Sam.”_

_“Lorenzo. But just Enzo.”_

_Two blonde heads popped out from behind the door. “And this is Stevie and Stacey.”_

_He nods. “Well then... you ready to go?”_

* * *

 

“Well that’s pretty much all the important stuff. Enzo fixed up a car and we drove until broke again. Ended up holed in that kitchen for about three weeks before we heard gun shots. We tried to make our own way out, but Cooper beat us to the punch and helped us out.” He shot Cooper a thankful smile, before looking over at his siblings.

They were finally sleeping peacefully, curled up on a chair together, Stevie holding his sister close. Finally safe.

“What about you?” Sebastian said, eyeing up Enzo.

“What do you mean? Sam explained everything-“

“No. That’s not what I meant.” Everyone watched Sebastian curiously, unsure of what he was doing. “You’ve been wary ever since you came here, like you’re looking for a way to escape.”

“Well, that’s a natural response? You guys could kill me at any second.”

Sebastian, clearly annoyed, stood up, whipping his knife out as he did and started walking over before anyone could stop him.

“What. Did. You. Do.” He said, holding his knife up to Enzo’s neck.

“Sebastian! Stop it!” Rachel shouted at him as Thad stood and tried to pull him away, only to be pushed aside. Everyone began yelling over each over, the volume building.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! Please!” Enzo pleaded.

“TELL ME!” He screamed, pressing the knife down.

“I HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE VIRUS!”

Silence fell upon the group, staring at Enzo in shock, even Sam, who’d spent over three weeks with the man. Sebastian’s eyes filled with hatred and his grip on the knife tensed.

“Please. Please let me explain!”

Blaine stood up, pulling himself from Kurt. “Bas, let him speak.”

“Why should I? He’s the reason our families are dead, Blaine!”

“Sebastian. Step away. We let him explain. And then after that, we’ll decide on what to do.”

Sebastian tensed again, but pulled away obediently. He stood close though, ready to pounce at any second.

“Enzo. Explain, now.”

Not missing a beat, Enzo shot into action, his eyes watching Sebastian’s knife warily.

“I’m a scientist. My colleagues and I were working on certain vaccines and viruses. One of them, Max, he... he started mixing our work together. I told him to stop; I knew it wasn’t going to turn out good. But it was like he was possessed. He was crazy, he would not stop what he was doing. And then one day, he started testing this thing he created on animals. In secret, we would have never let him do that if we’d known. From what I know they mostly died from what he was injecting into them. I didn’t know any of this until after though.

“I came into work one day and it so silent... It was never silent... I went to our lab and... There was blood... there was so much blood. He’d... he’d injected every single one of my colleagues with this serum he’d created... They were lying on the floor, I thought they were dead. Max was standing there, smiling... And then Michael stood up off the floor. I thought he was dead, I was so scared... He bit Max... he ate him.

“And I ran. I ran away. I left California and by the time I got to Kentucky, everything was gone.”

The room was silent, watching in shock.

“But I think if I can get back there, find Max’s research... I can fix it.”

Blaine frowned, unsure of what he meant.

“What do you mean?” Cooper asked from across the room, eyes filled with fear.

“I can make a cure.”

**Author's Note:**

> The title was taken from the song Lego House By Ed Sheeran. The line: And it's so hard to say it but I've been here before, Now I'll surrender up my heart, and swap it for yours. It was my little way of saying that Blaine would give his life to save Kurt, I guess... I just thought it sounded pretty.


End file.
